Kingdom Hearts: Lock of Fate
by evawms123
Summary: "To find is to craft, to craft is to find..." A young girl without a past, a quest to piece her memories together, and a power that can mend her or break her. Taking place during "Kingdom Hearts II". No romance between canon characters and original character. OC-centric. Please read, review, and repeat. Current location: Mysterious Tower
1. Prologue

"_To find old Memories is to craft new Memories. To lock new Memories is to unlock old Memories. To find and unlock, to craft and lock… that depends if I want to even believe them at all."_

* * *

The stars of the study of the retired Keyblade Master glowed brightly as he was reading one of his books to pass the time quietly. He was a skilled sorcerer at best: patient, careful with his craft, and stern. He was an elderly man in blue with a starry hat, dark eyes, and a gray beard that reached to his elbows. One thing he was not, however, was forgetful.

As he was reading, a woman in blue with dark hair opened the door and poked her head inside the study. The man lifted his head, looking at her before nodding once, allowing her to enter into the study. The woman carefully pushed the door open all the way before entering with an enveloped letter in her hands, bringing it forward and holding it in front of him.

"It's from your former student, Master Yen Sid," she spoke as he closed the book and accepted the letter. "He says it's very urgent and he wants you to make a response to his wife once you read it."

"Thank you, Merryweather. I will make note to make a response to the Queen," he answered to her, politely dismissing her. With that, she curtseyed and exited out of the study, her blue tinted wings twitching out of concern before she closed the door behind her.

Upon Merryweather's exit, Yen Sid examined the envelope carefully- no doubt from the King, his mouse-shaped stamp is on the envelope- before opening it carefully and pulled out the letter inside. Then he began to read it to himself.

"_To Master Yen Sid, _

_ I have news on Sora's whereabouts. He's currently in Twilight Town and in a deep sleep, ready to regain his memories. According to DiZ, a good friend of mine who's working with Sora's friend and a colleague, he needs to get the only person that could hold onto his memories in the meantime. He told me that he's prepared a digital version of the town to keep this person occupied in the good life until Sora's ready to wake up. This way, the Nobodies won't suspect anything._

_ However, to my knowledge, he's set up two versions of the digital Twilight Town. The one I told you about is for the person containing Sora's memories; the other is actually different. DiZ told me that this one is harmless- a 'Newborn Nobody'. He hasn't told me what exactly it is, but he's kept it a hefty secret for some time now. What he did told me, however, is that he wants the Nobody to be protected from the Organization's sights until it's ready for training to wield the Keyblade._

_ Send word to my Minnie to send out two companions for the Nobody where they can meet in Traverse Town to accompany it. I hope that one day, all worlds can be safe and that Light would become free._

_ Sincerely, _

_ King Mickey"_

Upon reading the letter, Yen Sid used his magic to get out a piece of paper, some ink, and a quill to make a response. He knew that this was urgent and that a proper response was needed to handle the situation needed.

"A Newborn Nobody… how curious," he mused to himself, wondering if anything like that could even exist. Nonetheless, he took grip of the quill and dipped it into the ink pot before writing a response.

"_To the Queen, _

_ I have received word from your husband about the Keyblade wielder's current condition. He is in Twilight Town in DiZ's care for the moment. All he needs to do is to house two subjects into two different virtual deceptions the town he has created to protect them from Organization XIII. One of them being a carrier of Sora's memories; the other is a Newborn Nobody of unknown origins. The latter would be brought to my care to start its training as a Keyblade wielder as soon as possible._

_ The King has requested that two of the castle's residents must be sent to Traverse Town to accompany the Nobody in its training. As for Sora and his companions, they are in safe hands for now._

_ The Keyblade wielder will wake soon. Another will be reborn._

_ Sincerely, _

_ Master Yen Sid"_

With that, he used his magic to carefully fold the letter and placed it inside the envelope, closing it and placing a star shaped seal to keep it closed. Using concentration to focus, he then closed his eyes and left the letter floating before causing it to disappear with a flash of light. All he needed to do now was to wait for a response from the Queen.

Little did he know that she would get the letter sooner than later…

* * *

At the curved and bright Disney Castle, home to the Queen as she is waiting for her husband to return and her lady-in-waiting to keep an eye on her, the letter was found by the castle's dog. He had a golden yellow fur with a green collar and a bone-shaped nametag that simply spelled out "Pluto", the name of the dog. He spotted it and inspected it with his nose before picking it up with his teeth and rushing over to the library of the castle, where the Queen was at. Normally, she would be in the throne room, but since she feared the creatures of corrupted hearts, otherwise known as the Heartless, would come here, she would not take any chances.

Upon seeing Pluto with the letter, the Queen stood and walked over to receive it from him. Although she was sadden that it was not from her husband as hoped, she was at least relieved that it was from someone that knows him.

"Thank you, Pluto," she spoke to Pluto as he made a bark in response, allowing her to open the envelope to read what she had gotten.

She realized that there is hope yet and hurried out of the library to take risks that the Heartless would be waiting for her. Luckily, there were not a single Heartless there for now; instead, there was her lady-in-waiting, Daisy, and a Royal Knight with silver armor and a red outfit underneath waiting for her. A year ago, the castle's Mage and Captain of the Royal Knights had left to travel with the wielder of the Keyblade and have not been heard from since then. This had caused concern between both Daisy and the Royal Knight, who was the Captain's only son named Max. For Daisy, the Mage was her boyfriend; for Max, however, his father had been gone for a long time without warning and without news if he was alright.

"I just received word about the King from Master Yen Sid, my friends," the Queen spoke to them as she held the letter in her hands. "He told me that Mickey has given word of the Keyblade wielder's current whereabouts. He told me that a close friend of his has taken him in and that another wielder would be training under Master Yen Sid. However, he wants the wielder to be protected and have a couple of friends sent to Traverse Town to meet up with them."

"I'll go, Your Highness," Max stated as he stepped in voluntarily. "I know I'm not supposed to leave yet. But since Dad left, I had gotten worried for him. Maybe the new Keyblade wielder would know where he is." He never said this before- mostly because he thought of his father as an embarrassment. Yet in this time of crisis, Max only needed to worry for his father's whereabouts like a son would.

"What about you, Daisy?" the Queen asked her friend, to which the lady-in-waiting responded, "Minnie, I have to stay here to help you out. Besides, I'm not much of a fighter anyway."

Then a voice with attempts of being brave piped up: "I'll fill in for the second part, Your Highness." Though Max and Daisy jumped in surprise by the piped-up voice, the Queen, on the other hand, was not worried a bit.

"Thank you, Gus, for your decision," she kindly stated to a flying creature with a bushy mustache and an aviator scarf. He was Gremlin Gus, one of the Gummi Ship flyers and the castle's mechanic, who was welcomed into the castle along with his kind after their world was destroyed. Since then, they became obedient into controlling the Gummi Ships.

"It is the best I could do, especially with the King being absent for the moment," Gus responded as he bowed at the Queen.

"The King requests that you and Max must go to Traverse Town to meet with the next Keyblade Wielder immediately," she instructed to both volunteers carefully as they listened carefully. "Or at least until Master Yen Sid gives word of their presence at the Tower. However, it needs to be your responsibility that the two of you protect the wielder."

She turned to Max and asked him, "Sir Max, are you equipped with defense like your father?"

He answered back with confidence, "Yep- I mean, yes, Your Highness."

She looked at Gus and asked him as well, "Gremlin Gus, is there anything you could do?"

He answered to her, "Besides fly the Gummi Ship? I could try to keep the wielder on the right track, like my friend did with Sora."

"That will be all right with me," the Queen responded with a nod of approval. She then looked at the two and stated to them as Daisy joined her at her side, "I would have to recommend the two of you to start preparing immediately and wait until for the next word from Master Yen Sid on what to do next."

They stood- for Gus, he floated- in attention and nodded in understanding on what the Queen told them. Max, on the other hand, made a new suggestion.

"Why not going to Traverse Town now to save time?" he asked the Queen.

She frowned and looked down with uncertainty. The last time there had been news about Traverse Town's condition, only the temporarily visitors of destroyed worlds returned there, leaving the town infested by Heartless. That was it; now she feared that it would become a ghost town of Heartless. Having Max and Gus go now, she feared, would prove to be a daunting task for their survival.

"Right, sorry about that," Max apologized to the Queen upon noticing her distress, knowing that he shouldn't ask that question.

* * *

Inside a basement room under a mansion, a man in red was typing codes into the multiple and brightly lit computer screens as a figure in black watched. These screens, the latter noticed, provided the only light in the dark room, if not dimly. The codes, on the other hand, provided secrets to what the man in red called to be his "greatest work yet". Whether or not he was right has yet to be determined. He knew that keeping the Keyblade wielder and his companions inside of their pods to retrieve their memories would give them time to grow, yet their memories would be nothing more than running wild. He just hoped that the little witch would hurry with her work and not dilly-dally.

"Do you know the whereabouts of Sora's Nobody at the moment?" the man in red asked the figure in black.

"Not to say I do- he could be here," the figure answered humorously. Then he asked the man in red, "What about the Newborn Nobody, DiZ? What's its condition?"

"The Newborn is sleeping for the moment, but the vitals are functioning and aware. A sleep like that seemed forever in a day. No matter; it will wake when it's ready."

"But when we found it, you acted as if you saw it before…"

DiZ looked down at the keyboard and lingered for a moment. The figure could be correct, as much as he didn't want to admit it. Yet there is work that needed to be complete, so he brushed the lingered moment off and continued with typing in the codes. He used one to check on the status of a figure laying in the dark ground. In the status, the pulse was steady and its breath was stable. In another status of another figure, things were appearing bleak. DiZ lowered his head in thought before turning to the figure in black.

"Find his Nobody and bring him here alive," he instructed to the figure. "Do whatever you need to do to accomplish this task."

"What about the Newborn?" the figure inquired.

"Leave the Newborn Nobody to me. Once it wakes, the town will be ready. However, there is no question that it will live the life that I created for it, with or without its original memories… if it even has memories to begin with."

Without question, the figure turned and left the room, heading out from the library, leaving DiZ in the room alone. He mused to himself if he could have said the last part a little differently, but shook it off.

A computer voice then notified to him: "_Revival at 95%._" He looked up to see the Newborn Nobody's status on the screen, smirked, and pressed a button, allowing the codes to take shape around the Nobody. He knew that it would wake soon.

* * *

Inside the infinite of the darkest space, a body floated down without anything or anyone to catch it. It was a female of the age of 14, wearing nothing but white undergarments and a silver gray helmet on her head. Forever floating without any support, yet not dead. She was still in a deep slumber; triggered by an amount of time given for growth of only the body.

Within this empty space was an infinite podium, where the body gently floated on it after its time in the emptiness. The podium was blank white and keyhole shaped, nothing to represent her memories- or at least if she even had memories.

An unknown voice beckoned her: "_Wake._"

She slightly lifted her head, yet the weight of the helmet urged her otherwise to lower it down again.

The voice beckoned again: "_Wake. You have slept enough._"

The figure lifted her head, her body following as she sat on the podium on her knees, looking down on the ground and her knees.

"_You are in your consciousness, where you can't tell if you are good or bad. Thoughts of having moral codes escape your mind, yet you yearn for the truth. Ah, you do not know that?_"

The figure didn't respond verbally or with her head.

"_Good. That is expected of you. It's your nature, of course._"

She only lifted her head to the emptiness before lowering it again.

"_You're nothing more than an anonymous face. Always will be. However… you can change that._"

In listening to what the voice said, the figure lifted her head and paid attention to what it had to say. As this happened, the helmet began to break off of her head with a silent crack at the top.

"_In your rebirth, you will encounter people and objects that are unknown to you. Some will protect you, others will want your life. In that rebirth, you'll know the truth. The truth that lies within your hidden memories. However, the task to uncover lost memories will not be an easy one._"

As the voice spoke, the crack reached to the base of her neck and to the top of the helmet's dark lenses as she looked down again.

"_To find lost memories, you must create new memories from your presence. Resisting the chance to craft will cause a shift in your path of identity. However, there is a price to be paid for your chance to create those memories. The price will be left in your hands whether or not you want it. To find is to craft, to craft is to find…_"

Once the crack reached to the front of the helmet, it then broke off in twain and fell to the blank podium. From the fallen of the split helmet, a set of long platinum blonde hair reached down to the ground, a few strands sprawled on her hands and knees.

"_But now is the time for you, little one, is to end this infinite slumber and start anew. It is time to wake._"

When the voice beckoned this, the girl lifted her head and opened her eyes of light pink, staring into the endless void.

* * *

In the dim room, DiZ noticed that the figure on the computer screen was twitching her fingers slightly and created a steady face to himself as he typed in codes for another stimulation in the computer.

"Time to wake up, little one, and have some fun with your friends while you still can."


	2. Chapter 1- Twilight Town: Thieves

-1st Day-

Within one of the quiet parts of Twilight Town, where the sun can forever be between day and night, lived a young 14 year old girl laying in her bed near the closed window after a good night's sleep. In the small room, shelves of books and a dark turquoise desk with numerous coloring pencils, drawings, and wooden mannequins cluttered the nooks and corners of the area. It was evident that the town, its people, and small cat toys were her favorite topics to draw. Well, a little too much, as evident by the massive amounts of drawings. Still, she didn't mind at all as long as there was still space left for her to draw more.

_Mere figments to the mind._

The girl herself had a braid of long platinum hair slumped on her right shoulder when she sat up on the bed. Her eyes were light pink in appearance, opposite of her mint green pajamas with bright yellow stars on the shorts. Her top, a tank top no less, only had a single yet outlined star at the center as sharp contrast to her shorts. However, she seemed extremely chipper in the morning- she merely looked at her room before bringing her right knee in and wrapping her arms around it, close to her chest carefully.

Then a trio of voices caught her attention. She whipped her head to the window, where she opened it and peeked out. It is there that she saw a trio of teens, two guys and one girl, waiting for her below. No doubt they were her friends.

_Mere figments to the mind._

"Fusa, you comin' down now?" the blond boy in camouflage pants called to her.

"We're gonna be late!" the black-haired boy with a red shirt added.

"This is very important!" the brunette girl in orange clothing also added.

"I'll be down, guys! Let me just change first!" the girl, Fusa, called back to them before going back inside and closing her window.

Once she watched them leave, she was able to get out of bed and to her closet. She knew that today would be the start of the first day of the week and one of the final days of summer vacation.

* * *

Once she found a suitable outfit to wear, along with a cat toy to keep her focused and her dark backpack, Fusa was out and into the cobblestone streets with a smile on her face. The outfit itself was made up of her long sleeved pink jacket with a pair of vertical zippers on the front on below her elbows and at the front of the jacket. In it was a light gray camisole and a pair of white shorts with a dark belt around her hips along with a pair of dark boots. Around her neck was a silver heart locket with a keyhole at the center. It was an interesting trinket of hers- she couldn't remember if it was given to her as a present or passed down from a family member. Still, it remained close to her dearly.

She wanted to be optimistic now that summer vacation is drawing to a close, not wanting to be sour. Still, she had to keep reminding herself on the sad reality of this endless summer coming to a close. After that, it would be a return to school. As she walked on the tiles lighted by the sunset, Fusa began her walk to her friends' local hangout they call the "Usual Spot". In her walk, she looked up at the clock tower of the Train Station and smiled. She always greeted "hello" to it mentally whenever going somewhere in the town. In her walk into town, however, citizens that were hustling about stopped and stared at her with suspicions in their eyes. Some closed up shop, others turned their backs with disgust. Fusa thought that it was unusual for the citizens to do that- perhaps it was something they ate.

Nonetheless, she arrived at the Usual Spot, albeit a minute late. The brunette-haired girl was standing and waiting outside of the Spot's entrance for the group's younger member. Fusa noticed the girl waiting and approached her with a smile.

"Sorry I was late, Olette," Fusa apologized with an innocent chuckle to the brunette upon stopping at the sight.

"Well, at least you're here," Olette responded with a sigh before turning her sight to inside of the Usual Spot. "Hayner was about to throw a hissy fit when you didn't show up within the first thirty seconds. But we have more things to worry about."

"What type of 'things', Olette?" Fusa inquired curiously, cocking her head slightly to the side.

"Hayner would explain it once we get inside." Once Olette said this, both of the girls went inside of the hangout and met up with the boys, Hayner and the black-haired boy, who were sitting in collective places; Olette sat down on the sofa and Fusa joined on the other side of the sofa next to her.

Inside, the group began their first discussion of the day. Normally, it would on summer vacation ending; this time, it would be entirely different. Discussions, as Fusa would know, were not exactly her strongest suit. She prefer to play with her cat toy rather than take part of these "pointless" discussions, unaware that her distracted mind had annoyed Hayner to no end. The cat toy, which was a ball with a bell inside of a smaller ball, had a distinct ringing sound that was a little too cute for those to comprehend. Still, the group had to ignore the jiggles and proceeded to talk about the topic first and foremost important.

"Seifer's gone way too far this time," Hayner started as he bitterly crossed his arms with discontent.

"Seriously, though… why would he do that to us?" the black-haired boy responded in agreement with a nod. Olette did not pitch in her answer nor did Fusa though for different reasons alone.

"Here's the main problem with Seifer: he's always finding a way to make **us** look bad by making us the suspects to a crime," Hayner began to rant with hints of anger. "This wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the whole town and their mother are treating us as if we're kleptos or something!"

As he rambled, Fusa was throwing her cat toy in the air, thus emitting jiggles from the inner bell.

"This is probably the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened in our lives, since it-" Hayner continued before he stopped and glared at a distracted Fusa. The black-haired boy jumped off from his seat and was ready to restrain his friend from attacking. Olette, on the other hand, grew anxious on what he would do.

"Excuse me, Fusa, I'm trying to say something here!" Hayner called to the young blonde as she stopped and looked at him with a questioned expression. As soon as she stopped, the cat toy dropped to the ground.

"As I was saying," Hayner said as he picked up where he left off as the black-haired boy made a sigh of relief and sat back down. "This is probably the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened in our lives, since it happened when we least expected it. We don't exactly know what was stolen, but we did not even lay a finger on it! Now, what to do…"

The black-haired boy and Olette only turned their attentions to each other before looking at Fusa for suggestions. She was close to picking up her cat toy, but paused at seeing her friends looking at her. Nonetheless, she shook her head as a "no" without a suggestion to mind. When she shook her head in response, both kids turned their attention back to Hayner for what he would have to say next.

"Anyone have suggestions as to what should we do about this?" Hayner asked his friends as he placed his hands on his hips. "Pence? Olette? Fusa?"

"The obvious would be an investigation around town to find out what was stolen in the first place," the black-haired boy, Pence, answered with an idea. "I know that the town thinks we did it, but we wanted to prove ourselves true and fair. Something like that."

"We could find the stolen object ourselves," Olette added in her suggestion as the others listened to her. "After all, we have maps that can take us around town."

So the rest of the three kids turned their attentions to Fusa to see if she had anything to say about the situation. She only exchanged their attention to her with her own to them without a word at first. Fusa always considered simple solutions to complex problems as the key to hope in dire situations. Now a simple problem would be different. Still, she was needed to pitch in with her suggestion.

"Perhaps we can make peace with Seifer and his Committee," Fusa suggested with high hopes to her friends, "They could help us find the real thieves and the stolen article. Perhaps they can also let the town know that we are innocent, too."

Pence and Olette looked at each other with confusion by the suggestion, though the former seemed interested in the idea. Hayner, however, sneered by the idea of making peace with Seifer, of all people.

"Peace? With Seifer?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow at her. "This guy makes us look like morons yet you suggest to make peace with him?"

"Well, how about this: We should investigate the town for answers and clear our names for innocence," Pence began to explain with an idea as the others listened to him. "If Seifer and his gang tries to give us trouble, we'll go with Fusa's suggestion to make attempts for peace with them."

"And if that doesn't work?" Hayner inquired with his arms crossed.

"Then you can fight him," Pence unenthusiastically answered, rolling his eyes without a hint of impression. Fusa, on the other hand, grew concerned of a brawl in public between the two groups. A brawl that would lead to a possible turf war and perhaps criminal charges- all before the start of school.

Still, it would be settled; the group were able to stand and make their way into town. While Hayner, Pence, and Olette made an exit out of the Usual Spot, only Fusa stayed behind out of anxiety. She felt that something was not right; could Seifer set them up in a trap? There was no time to think, however. Hayner was on his way back to her and grabbed her wrist, causing her to gasp with surprise.

"C'mon, Fusa, we're gonna need your help," he stated as he pulled her away from the Usual Spot's entrance and to the others.

* * *

In the hub of the town called Market Street, where citizens have noticed the group and scurried away out of sight with glares in their eyes, Fusa stopped in her tracks and looked around to see if there was someone to tell her and her friends on what was wrong. Normally the Street would be full of busy streetwise shoppers; it felt too quiet aside from dogs barking in the distance. She looked forward and saw her friends waiting for her at the Clothes shop.

"Over here, Fusa!" Hayner called to her from a decent distance.

She looked down at her two feet before looking up ahead and again and began to run over to her friends. Her observations of the building of the shop had a dark shade of brown with dark cream signs of clothes scattered on the front and sides. Nonetheless, she only had to shrug it off and listened to what her friends had to say.

"Let's get this investigation underway," Pence told the others before the shopkeeper, a man with blond hair and purple wristbands, cleared his throat to get the group's attention.

"Geez, you guys," the shopkeeper stated to them as Fusa was first to step up to the counter to talk to him, "Can't believe you would do something like this…"

"M-mister, we didn't steal anything, I swear," Fusa responded to him as she looked at him with soft sincerity in her eyes.

"I want to believe you, but… Who else would steal that stuff?" the shopkeeper stated to her again.

"What stuff?" Fusa asked him as she stepped forward out of curiosity.

He merely scowled at her and answered to her, "As if you didn't know! Hey, I'm not gonna tell you. Go ask the owner of the accessory shop- you're wasting my time." With that, he closed up shop, leaving Fusa confused to herself.

The group turned to another shop on the other side of town, an accessory shop that was a little bit lighter in shade and had colored jewelry signs on the front of the shop. Though Fusa was not one to think the excessive amounts would satisfy the void in people's hearts for simple things, the female shopkeeper was nice and understanding. The four managed to head over there to speak to her for any clarification. As they walked over there, Fusa stopped and turned her head to see a few people hiding. What struck her as curious was that they seemed to have numbers and letters as skin. However, she shrugged it off and followed behind.

Once they reached to the accessory shop, Hayner looked at Fusa and urged her to talk to the shopkeeper. Once the shopkeeper saw the 14-year-old, she drew a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's you, Fusa," she stated to Fusa unlike the previous shopkeeper, "Please don't let me down. You used to be one of my favorite customers."

"We're not thieves, ma'am, you just got to believe us," Fusa replied to her as she adjusted her backpack straps on her shoulders.

"Okay…" the shopkeeper responded with growing suspicion in her voice.

"Please, you need to understand," Fusa explained to her, knowing that the shopkeeper wouldn't believe her at all, "It's terrible having everyone suspecting us."

"Then you gotta clear your names," the shopkeeper suggested with an idea as the group listened to what she had to say, "The woman at the candy shop is pretty disappointed, too. Maybe you can try asking her."

The group then turned to the candy shop across from the accessory shop, which had a more kinder look than the previous shop. The owner, possibly a widowed grandmother, was usually with a cat by her side; Fusa noticed that the cat was missing. Nonetheless, the group headed over to the candy shop where the owner was waiting at.

At the candy shop, the owner asked Fusa in a grandmotherly tone, "Fusa? Have you seen my cat?"

"I-I don't think so, ma'am," Fusa responded honestly before hearing a soft meow on the canopy of the shop, taking a few steps back, and looking up to see what it was. There, she saw a cat with an orange and yellow colored collar sitting without intention of coming down.

Fusa thought of ways to get the cat to come down from the canopy, though it would be a waste of time anyway. She tried calling the cat, but it didn't seem to budge, much to her chagrin. When she lost hope, she remembered the cat toy she brought along and pulled it out of her backpack. Then she began to shake it in her hand, catching the cat's attention and allowing her to lock on the feline to get it down. Immediately, the cat got up and jumped down from the canopy with Fusa there to catch it. She couldn't help herself but give the cat a light scratch on the chin before giving it back to the candy shop owner.

"Thank you, dearie," the owner thanked Fusa as the cat went over the counter to have something to eat.

"Ma'am, did they stole something you, too?" Fusa asked her as the group listened to what the owner had to respond.

"Oh, my, yes," the woman responded with a sad nod. "Something very important. I forgot what they took from me, but it is very close to my heart."

"Just to clarify, we didn't do it," Fusa stated to the woman to keep her informed.

"Don't worry, I believe you," the owner responded with a kind nod to the group.

"Thank you for that, ma'am," Fusa thanked her with a sigh of relief.

The group was able to take some steps away to discuss matters to themselves privately about the situation. Fusa seemed to be concerned while her friends were confused by it. She didn't know whether or not it was possible to lack memories of the stolen article. In fact, she couldn't tell if it was true or not.

"This isn't any average thief…" Pence affirmed to his friends as they looked at him, "No one seems to remember what was stolen from them…"

"Do you think the thief stole their memories as well?" Fusa inquired out of thought now she decided to discuss it further with her friends.

"We should talk with Seifer about it- maybe he knows about it," Olette suggested to her friends.

"We'll put Fusa's idea into action and try to get him and the Committee to help us out," Pence added, though Fusa herself became flustered by his words. "Let's go talk to him in the Sandlot!"

Once settled, the group headed to the Sandlot, East to the Street of town, and where the local Disciplinary Committee would be at. As they left, however, the woman at the candy shop was gone.

* * *

At the Sandlot, where the sunset has reached to the buildings and dirt is unlimited, the four teens spotted three of the members: Rai and Fuu, Seifer's lackeys, and a new member simply known as "Vivi". Only Fusa remained behind due to, based on her knowledge from watching him, Seifer's reputation to fight anyone to prove their strength to him. When the teens arrived, however, Vivi quickly took notice and started eyeing them with soulless yellow dotted eyes. Rai and Fuu later took notice as well and turned to the small group.

"Thieves," Fuu only uttered as she pointed at them and lowered her arm.

"That was low, y'know!" Rai added, much to Hayner's annoyance.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the loser thieves," a voice taunted them coldly as Seifer appeared from the alleyways and joined with the Committee. "Have you come to confess what you did? Or do you have other things in mind?"

Hayner stood his ground with a low growl, though Pence nudged Fusa's shoulder to step forward to do her task. Despite her unsure feelings to even talk to them, she stepped forward in front of the Committee. Seifer only placed his hands on hips in superiority, raising an eyebrow at the 14-year-old. Rai and Fuu only looked at her; Vivi was paying attention. Fusa became pressured to go through with her suggestion, feeling as if she had butterflies in her stomach. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Mister Seifer a-and respectable members of the Committee," Fusa began to speak politely as she twiddled her fingers unsurely, "My friends and I would want your help in finding the real thieves. I was wondering if we could make peace to work together to clear our names…" Then she gave an honest smile at them to seal the deal.

However, this didn't work; the Committee members only laughed at her as a response, causing her to frown with an ashamed blush. Once Seifer ceased their laughter, he crossed his arms and had a different idea.

"That little idea of yours doesn't work in the real world, kid," he stated as Fusa only cowered a bit from hurt, "It's called 'natural selection'. If you want to prove yourself innocent of your crimes, you gotta fight with the big boys." Then an idea came to mind as he grabbed two blue Struggle bats from a nearby bench. "Better yet, you can prove it right now- we'll go _mano-a-mano _with some Struggle bats. If I win, you all turn tail and leave town to Sunset Terrace. If I lose, then I'll let it slide."

He then tossed one of the Struggle bats to Fusa, which landed on the ground in front of her feet. She only looked down without knowing what to do, but only picked it up to examine it in her hands. After moments of thinking as to whether or not to do it, Fusa grimaced and put the bat back down on the ground.

"I wish to decline the offer to duel with you, Mister Seifer," she stated to him before backing away from the bat with a few steps. "Violence has no place in my life at all."

"So you're gonna be a chicken wuss about it, then?" Seifer mocked her with a harsh tone. "Forfeiting from a fight is against the rules in my book. Otherwise, you'll-"

"I'll take her place!" Hayner interrupted Seifer as he rushed in front of Fusa to grab the Struggle bat from the ground. "You want a fight? You got one!"

"Hayner, you…" Fusa spoke in a quiet voice as she reached out to Hayner. He only looked behind her with a disappointed look and responded in a low voice, "Next time, try to at least fight for yourself."

Then he looked forward and charged at Seifer as Pence and Olette got Fusa away from the two fighters. The 14-year-old felt guilt in herself for making a decision not to fight Seifer and only looked down to think about it.

In their fighting, Seifer was taunting Hayner to strike at him, waiting for the chance to get the upper hand. When the latter blocked attacks, the former was looking for weak points as he used strikes to distract him. Luckily, Hayner was able to dodge some of Seifer's attacks and got the upper hand. He made an uppercut to the stomach with his bat, creating internal damage with the top of the bat itself.

During the fighting, as Pence and Olette were rooting for Hayner, Fusa noticed a grey streak heading to the Station Plaza, home to the clock tower and a train station called Central Station. She raised an eyebrow out of a curious manner, almost entranced by it. Almost by instinct from birth, she sneaked away from the groups and started to follow it in the proper direction, making a run for it. She did not recognize that streak at all; perhaps, she thought to herself as she made her way through the neighborhood and its quiet alleyways, if it was fleeing away from something or someone. There could be a chance for her to help them. As she followed after the streak, however, time had stopped and only Vivi was watching her move.

* * *

As she ran towards the grey streak, exhaustion caught up with her halfway in the curious chase. Her thighs were pulsing and tight from running, and her back was sweating. Luckily, though, she was able to stop and catch her breath before anything else happens.

"They're heading to the Central Station," she told herself with a huff of breath before looking forward ahead, "So they might need to go somewhere. But who are they? Why are they making rendezvous at the station?" Once she was able to have a moment, Fusa began running again to the train station.

By the time she arrived at the Station Plaza, Fusa halted to a total stop and noticed the grey streak had a form. It appeared human-like, yet it appeared dangerously thin. It was just standing with light sways of its arms and shoulder blades. Fusa found this puzzling; she figured that it was waiting for someone important. She took one step forward and was ready to reach out to it. Then it turned around slowly, making her gasp and step back a bit. She realized that this was no ordinary person at all- it was waiting for _her._

The creature had no eyes, only a symbol on the top of its head, and a zipper for a mouth; Fusa was unsure if it was suit or skin at this point. Her heart raced with fear when it made a few steps forward in a strange fashion towards her. She wanted to ask it questions, but her mind went blank at the sight and her body was paralyzed with fear. Was it a friend? A foe? A man? A monster? Questions ran wild in her head as she looked at the creature more.

Before she could blink, two more suddenly appeared on both sides of the creature in the same direction. Fusa whimpered a bit as her eyes widened in confusion and fear as to what these creatures were going to do. Not once in her life that she felt real danger creeping down her spine, or lack thereof.

"Hayner… Pence… Olette… where are you?" she breathed in a quiet voice as she was backing away from the creatures.

That's when the first of the trio spoke in a low voice to her, as if she could understand it clearly:

"_We have come for you, sister._"

Fusa gasped with horror as she watched the three husks' zippers open to reveal emptiness inside their bodies and twitch rabidly. Then they took their first leap and started to quickly slither in the air towards her. She had no choice but to run from them with fear.

* * *

In the chase, Fusa was running as fast as she could in the town, hoping to get away from the creatures and find her friends. Upon reaching to the Sandlot, she stopped to find that her friends and the Committee were gone. She looked around to see if they were there, but to no avail. Her thoughts were going haywire as to why they were going after her and why one of them called her "sister".

Now was not the time to think, she knew; they were on their way. So she began to run again, yet she was growing breathless again. This time, she had to ignore her lack of breath and continued running until she would wind down. Exhaustion was creeping up to her again, this time heavier and harder to get rid of.

As she ran, however, Fusa began to slow down from the speed and her sides were in pain. She fell to one knee to take a breath, not knowing whether or not the creatures were still behind her or not. Before she could get up and run again, she saw in the corner of her eye a figure in blue and yellow holding a strange weapon in their hands. It appeared to be Vivi, for he was waiting for the creatures to come. When they came, however, they stopped and proceeded to attack him instead.

Fusa was able to barely stand and watched what Vivi was going to do, or at least, what he had planned to do. She watched as he made a high jump and attack the creatures without fail, using the weapon to slice and slash them fatally. Rather than their bodies falling to the ground, the creatures only faded in a puff of dark essence. Fusa didn't know whether or not she was seeing everything; the only thing that mattered was that Vivi had stopped the creatures from coming after her.

"Vivi…" she huffed breathlessly as Vivi looked at her with an apparent blank stare, "That was… incredible."

Before she could thank him, however, the sun started to glow brighter than ever, causing Fusa to cover her eyes so she wouldn't go blind. Then a hard force knocked her to the ground unconscious and out cold…

* * *

Inside the dim computer room, where DiZ was typing in codes into the computer, the figure in black entered from a portal from darkness and approached behind the man in red. He was called upon by DiZ when all things were considered important. In this case, it was urgent by call.

"The Organization can't seem to figure out which stimulation has the Nobody in it," the figure in the black cloak quipped to DiZ to make the moment light.

"It doesn't matter now," DiZ responded to the man. "Even if they try to locate Roxas, they would find a way to get Fusa in their clutches as well. Those meddling Dusks have found a way to get into the system under our watch and possibly in disguise. The next time you go inside, do not use that pathetic disguise again. It would throw the system off and increase the amount of glitches. That would create a leak between the two stimulations."

"Does that mean that the two must not know each other at all costs?" the figure in black inquired as he crossed his arms. DiZ only sighed quietly to himself rather than give a proper answer.

"Precisely," he answered in a sincere voice. "Neither of them must be aware of each other's presence in their containments. Now I only hope your actions doesn't create a riff in the system."

* * *

Elsewhere, in Disney Castle, Max and Gremlin Gus made their way to the Gummi Ship so they would head to Traverse Town. They needed a ship and fast to meet up with the engineers to see if there was a Ship ready for them. The two brought supplies just in case the trip becomes longer than expected; Max brought along his skateboard, his own choice of weapon instead of a shield, as well as a pair of goggles for a helmet. Gus, on the other hand, was bringing along a journal to record people, events, and locations down like his friend did. While he did not bring any weapons of his own, he could still be of use for the Keyblade wielder.

"So, Gus, which model of Gummi Ship should use?" Max asked Gremlin Gus once they arrived to the Gummi Hangar.

"I'm certain Chip and Dale already gotten control of the _Kingdom_ model," Gus responded to the young Knight. "Perhaps we should use the _Excalibur _model. That is a priceless beauty to behold- _Excalibur_. Merlin helped me name it, of course."

"Is it fast enough to get us to Traverse Town?" Max asked him again.

"Faster than the speed of sound, I would say."

Max merely rolled his eyes at the pointless bragging and went on to see the Gummi Ship itself. He noticed that while it wasn't as cool-looking as the _Kingdom_ model, being that it had a sky blue coat with dark green and raspberry on its boosters, it wasn't shabby-looking either. At least the Gremlins knew what type of blueprint they would use- just not the right amount of colors to make it perfect.

When they approached the Gummi Ship _Excalibur_, two of Gus's fellow Gremlins spotted them and became concerned in motion. They were told that someday, their leader would be able to go out into the worlds in his Ship and would be gone for a long time. However, Gus simply smiled at them and held his hand at them, gesturing to them not to worry about him. Still, he didn't want to see his fellow Gremlins worried sick about their leader.

"How is the _Excalibur_ doing, chaps?" Gus inquired to them as Max waited for him to hurry up.

"She's ship-shape and ready for the journey, sir," one of them responded with a salute.

"Excellent, that's what we wanted to hear," Gus told them with a nod at the two fellow Gremlins.

"Sir, are you really going to go?" the other asked him with growing concern.

Gus sighed and floated to them, stating to them in a low voice, "Do not worry for me, lads. I'll be reliving the glory days back when we still had our world. Someday, I will return when it is over. Make no mistake!"

With that, they nodded in understanding and floated away, leaving Gus and Max to the Gummi Ship themselves.

"The 'glory days'?" Max asked him with a puzzled expression.

"It's a long story, lad, and I hope you have the time for one on the trip," Gus answered with a chuckle before they proceeded into the Ship. "Well, it's more than a long story, anyway."

Once they board the Ship, the Gremlins made signals to Gus to prepare for takeoff out of the Castle. When it was time to go, Max buckled up in a seat with his seatbelt, Gus took the handles for navigation, and they were off.


	3. Chapter 2- Twilight Town: Odd jobs

2nd Day

_Who… who were those creatures? What do they want? Do they intend to hurt my friends? Why are they here? I need answers… I need answers!_

* * *

Awoken from a dream, Fusa was catapulted from her sleep in shock. She was breathing hard and shifting her eyes around the room to see if there was any of the grey creatures around to go after her. Luckily, though, she was able to relax and give a sigh of relief that there wasn't any in the room. Still, the events of yesterday had confused her. Did Vivi really save her? Was she seeing things in her head? And what ever did happen to her friends?

Nonetheless, Fusa scratched her head with her left hand in puzzlement. Perhaps she was imagining things. One thing was for sure, though: she was expected at the Usual Spot.

Once she got out of bed, Fusa was able to get dressed in her normal outfit from her pajamas and grab her backpack.

"Maybe my friends would know what happened yesterday," she told herself as she got out of the house and to the streets to head over to the Usual Spot.

* * *

Close to the entrance to the Usual Spot, nearby the lamp-post and post board, Fusa stopped and looked around, believing that she saw a man in a black cloak in the corner of her eye. She shook her head when she thought of it as preposterous and headed to the Usual Spot without stopping. Unbeknownst to her, however, there was a man in a black cloak watching her in the shadows.

Upon arriving to the Spot, where her friends were at, Fusa noticed that Hayner didn't appear to be damaged from yesterday's events. That, and they were having sea-salt ice cream with one more for her. She was slightly confused at first; still, she didn't want to question it at all.

"Hey, Fusa, how's it hanging?" Hayner asked her with a grin as she received the ice cream from Olette.

"Fine, I guess…" she answered in an unsure tone as she began eating her ice cream. He only cocked his head to the side as if she was thinking of something else.

"What's wrong?" he asked again as if concerned..

"It's just that- well, summer vacation's drawing a close," Fusa answered, not wanting to bring up the accusations nor the grey creatures yesterday. "I fear that neither of us would be together as friends. It scares me to think about it. Then again, it's a part of growing up, I guess."

"All of us are," Pence stated to her as she turned her attention to him. "But still, we're still gonna be friends, even if we're not together. We'll never forget each other because friends never forget each other."

Fusa thought about what Pence stated to her and gave a smile with a nod. "You're right, guys."

"I think I know what we should do before this vacation ends," Hayner spoke with an idea in mind as the others listened to him. "We could all go to the beach! Blue seas, blue skies, the sand between your toes- it would be great!"

"Sounds like a great idea, Hayner," Olette stated as Pence and Fusa turned their attention to her, "But there's a problem: we're broke."

"You forgot that I'm smart," he humorously responded before running out of the Usual Spot. Once they were finished with their ice cream, Pence and Olette tossed their ice cream sticks into the trash and followed behind Hayner to Market Street.

Once again, Fusa remained behind to think about what happened the previous day before, wondering why her friends can't remember what happened. However, she hoped to put it past her and stood up to follow behind Pence and Olette, still holding onto her bar of sea-salt ice cream.

* * *

Upon arriving outside, Fusa spotted a nearby map that contained the locations of Twilight Town and picked it up, examining it carefully. With it, she rolled it up carefully and placed it in her backpack for future reference. Then she noticed her friends in front of a poster for the yearly Struggle Tournament, to which Hayner entered into the finals for due to his quick senses. Upon arriving, Hayner looked behind him and moved a bit for her to join in with the others.

"Just two days to go," he stated to his friends. "No matter what, if I win, the four of us split the prize!"

"You gotta make it to the finals, Hayner," Fusa replied with encouragement and a nod. "I've seen you fight like no one else!"

"You're gonna clean up!" Pence pitched in.

"Go get 'em!" Olette added.

"You got it, guys," Hayner responded with confidence in his heart. Then he remembered about the beach trip. "Okay, let's get down to business. One ticket to the beach is 900 munny. How much for the four of us?"

"3600 munny," Olette answered to him as Pence and Fusa listened in.

"And 300 each to spend there. What's that for all of us?" Hayner asked her again as he looked at her with a questioned look.

She answered him again, "1200 munny. A total of 4800 munny."

"To spend on what, exactly?" Fusa inquired to them, trying to figure out what type of object has that amount.

"Pretzels, of course! What else is there?" Hayner answered her as she crossed her arms with thought.

"Well, there's always watermelon," she answered to him in a humorous tone, trying to lighten the mood.

"Too pricey," he responded to her as he shook his head as a "no" to her, "They're, like, 2000 munny apiece."

Taking her munny out of her pocket and counting it in her hand, Fusa sighed and agreed with Hayner, "Pretzels it is."

Once they had the type of snack for the beach trip figured out, Hayner questioned as if he forgotten the topic and asked his friends, "So, where were we?"

"We need 4800 munny altogether," Olette answered him, "But all we have is…?"

"I've got 800 on me," Pence answered upon getting his munny out of his pocket.

"650 on me as well," Olette added in.

"150. Sorry, guys," Fusa stated as she showed her friends the amount of munny she had in her hand before putting it back in her pocket for safekeeping.

"That's 1600 munny! We need another 3200," Hayner stated after he counted up the total amount of munny that his friends had. Soon he had an idea upon seeing the job bulletin on the board on a nearby wall. "Let's find ourselves some odd jobs and earn some dough! We have 'til the train leaves to earn 800 munny each!" Then he made a head start ahead as the other three waited for him on what to do next. He called out to them as he ran, "Meet me at the station with cash in hand!"

Pence merely rolled his eyes and crossed his arms behind his head, asking to the girls, "Didn't he say he had it covered?"

"At any rate, those pretzels are sounding pretty good," Fusa answered to him before she, Pence, and Olette headed up to Market Street to apply for odd jobs. She only hoped that the odd jobs themselves would be able to take the previous day's events off her mind. It would be the last thing she needed right now.

As they left, however, the man in black was in the shadows and was observing Fusa carefully before walking in her direction.

* * *

Upon arriving to the job bulletin board in Market Street, Fusa read the job descriptions for at least three of them: "Mail Delivery", "Cargo Climb", and "Grandstander". She figured that she could boost up her strength first just in case those creatures decided to come back. So she chose "Cargo Climb" and headed to the top of the hill, where a man was waiting for someone. Upon arriving, he turned to her and examined her carefully.

"I'm here to make some munny, sir," she stated to him politely as he looked at her with suspicions, "Just tell me what to do, please."

"If you want 50 munny, you gotta get that cargo into the garage in less than 30 seconds," he instructed to her carefully, "Any type of delay will give you 10 munny. Are we clear on that, missy?"

"Yes," Fusa answered to him with a nod. He took out a stopwatch out of his pocket and showed it to her.

"You see this?" he asked her before explaining to her, "I'm gonna be timing you so that you get the job done fast. I only hope that you have a strong back."

She nodded in response and headed over to the large bag on wheels, prepared to do the job done and fast. Fusa cracked her fingers and waited for the time to go, examining the cargo itself. It seemed heavy, she noticed with wide eyes, hence the wheels. But when she heard the man call out for time, she pressed her palms into the bag and began to push as hard as she could upwards the hill. Despite its heavy weight, she continued to push it upwards, trying to avoid slipping and being crushed if it rolled back. Midway in, about 21 seconds, Fusa almost slipped and nearly slid down. Thankfully, she caught herself and continued to go upwards until reaching to the top and pushed the bag into the garage, where the wheels collapsed underneath.

"Time!" the man called as he stopped the stopwatch. "You did… somewhat decently. You clocked in at 35 seconds. However, you do earn more than 10 munny."

With that, he gave her 30 munny as reward. However, she felt unhappy with her mistake and turned to him.

"Is it possible that I could try again, sir?" she asked him upon putting the munny into her pocket. He looked at her as if she was insane.

"Try again? You sure?" he asked her as he raised an eyebrow. She nodded her head as a sincere "yes". "Fine; you get another chance."

She made a sigh of relief and noticed another cargo bag waiting down the hill for her. This time, she began to point out to herself where it would be best to hold her balance. Once she was able to be down the hill behind the cargo, the man waited for her to be ready. She became settled and he restarted the stopper.

As soon as the timer was set, Fusa started to push the bag up the hill. This time, she was able to use where she could get her balance and push the cargo up the hill. Unlike her previous attempt, where she nearly slipped, she used the balance as her advantage and was able to push the cargo up at a quicker yet careful pace. Upon pushing it to the top, she used the last of her ability to push it into the garage so it would be with the first bag. She wiped off a bit of sweat of her brow and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Impressive- 25 seconds," the man stated as he showed her the timer so she would see what she got this time. "Looks like you've earned it." He then gave her the 50 munny as guaranteed and placed it in her hands.

"Thank you, sir," she thanked him before putting the munny in her pocket. "Maybe later this week I can do more?"

"Anytime you want, kiddo," he answered before she ran off to the bulletin to see what else was there.

She noticed that there was an opening for a "Grandstander", or one that could make cheap entertainment with a ball in the air by juggling. To her, it was still entertainment regardless of quality. According to the job description, there needs to be someone that could make that entertainment happen. Though not exactly the performer type, Fusa seemed interested in it. Maybe she could try it out to see if the entire incident could go away.

"Excuse me," she spoke after quietly clearing her throat to a child who had a large ball in her hand, "Is there a sign-up sheet for this job?"

"No, there isn't," the little girl answered as she shook her head as a "no" at Fusa, "But are you applying for the 'Grandstander' position?"

"Yes," Fusa answered honestly.

"The rules are simple. If you make 20 or more juggles in the air without dropping the ball five times, you earn 50 munny. Make five to 19 juggles and you earn 30 munny. However, if you make less than four juggles, then you only earn 10 munny. You can use that Struggle bat if you want to."

When she said this, the little girl pointed to a Struggle bat on the ground close by where they were standing. Fusa snapped her head to see where the Struggle bat was at with confusion. She didn't notice the bat when she approached the little girl. In fact, the bat wasn't there when she arrived. Still, she went over to the bat and picked it up, feeling the dotty texture of the handle in her hand. Holding it in her hand brought back that memory of the previous day of being challenged by Seifer to fight him, being told off by Hayner, and being chased by those grey creatures. This time, she had to hold it in her hand and turned to the little girl with a spark of hope that she can do this.

"I can try to do it," Fusa stated to the little girl once she was settled.

"I will be counting the amount of juggles you make," the little girl responded to her with a nod before tossing the ball to the center of the area, where a crowd has gathered to watch.

Fusa took her backpack off and placed next to a nearby wall so that there would be less weight on her back, literally speaking. A light crowd gathered around the soon-to-be performance, including Vivi, as Fusa prepared herself to entertain the crowd. She felt a little nervous about doing it in front people, especially with someone from the Committee. Once the little girl tossed the ball into the air, Fusa held the Struggle bat in her hand and made her first hit at it. Though it wasn't high enough, it was able to give her concentration. That, and the crowd was easily entertained.

Once the ball was in the air, Fusa took a chance and made a high jump at it, using the bat to thwack it to keep it in the air. Gravity pulled her back down as she landed on her feet carefully, not knowing that the crowd's cheers subsided. She turned and found that the ball has fallen to the ground as well. She had 4 tries left. So she tossed the ball in the air and made a quick hit on it in the air, causing it to hit the wall before falling back onto the ground again. 3 tries left. No time to mess up. She rushed over to the ball and picked it up to hit it again, but something caught her eye.

It was a man in black from where Vivi should have standing in, for he was just watching her move. She thought that she recognized him from earlier today, but she thought that it was strange to see the man in one day. This distraction, however, had cost her another try when the ball came back down. The crowd grew impatient for entertainment, grumbling in disappointment. Fusa was able to pay attention and snap back into reality. Before she could pick it up again, however, the little girl approached her with a sour face and snatched it from her. The crowd became disgruntled and left the area, making Fusa worried that she did something very wrong to them.

"You suck at this, y'know that," the little girl berated the 14-year-old before putting the ball away. "And you scared the customers away. Just take the 10 munny and go away." With that, she threw the 10 munny at Fusa's feet before leaving her distraught by the harsh words.

Feeling hard on herself, Fusa picked up the 10 munny off the ground and put it in her pocket as she stood in unsure thoughts, looking down at the ground. Her thoughts were interrupted when Vivi approached her in a hobble out of concern.

"You okay, Fusa?" he asked her in a kind tone.

No answer came from her.

"I thought you did pretty well," Vivi complimented nicely.

This got her attention and she looked at him with a puzzled look.

"Really?" she inquired in a low tone.

He nodded "yes" as an answer.

"Not even Seifer can do something like that," Vivi stated to her, causing her to give a small smile at him. "You'll get better at it. Don't let anyone like that kid get you down and out."

"Thank you, Vivi," Fusa thanked Vivi as she got to his eye level and gave him a warm hug. Once she pulled out and stood up, she asked him, "How about you join me and my friends for sea-salt ice cream? We would like it greatly."

"I don't know if Seifer would let me go with you guys," Vivi answered to her invitation. "But I've always wanted to try it out. So maybe tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow it is, then. See you then, Vivi." With that, Fusa waved goodbye to him, grabbed her backpack and put it on, and left for the bulletin board on the wall. When she left, however, Vivi was gone again.

In front of the bulletin board on the wall, Fusa examined on what was next for the odd jobs list. She noticed the last of the three: "Mail Delivery". The requirements listed that the person would be able to deliver mail to carrier pigeons while they were in the air and while the person was on a skateboard. She had to re-read the last requirement just to be safe. She groaned to herself upon realizing that she's not so good with skateboarding of all things. However, there was no other option except to try it out for size.

With that said, she headed over to the mail-lady with a bag of mail inside and a skateboard with a post stamp at her side. Fusa brought upon herself to approach to the mail-lady to get the final job. As long as it was get enough munny for the beach and pretzels, she knew that she would have to try skateboarding now.

"Are you here for the job, kid?" the mail-lady inquired to Fusa once the 14-year-old approached her.

"Yes, ma'am," she answered with a nod.

"Okay, here are the rules to do the task," the mail-lady explained to Fusa as she handed her the bag and skateboard. "There are five letters in that hand-bag and they need to be delivered to five carrier pigeons. However, they need to be delivered in under 20 seconds. Get the mail delivered in under 20 seconds, you get 50 munny. Past those 20 seconds and you'll get either 30 munny or 10 munny. I will be timing you during this time. Got that?"

Fusa nodded and was sent to work for the job. She hoped that the man in the black cloak would not distract her again to make a fool out of her. Upon finding the first pigeon flying in the air, Fusa stood on the skateboard and started to quickly skate. She grabbed the first letter and held it in her hand. When she looked at the pigeon, the bird instantly exchanged her look at her and made a dive to her, receiving the letter successfully.

She continued to skate down quickly within 6 seconds, getting to the next pigeon. In 10 seconds, she got two more. Once she spotted the final pigeon, it was almost in 15 seconds. She had no choice but to throw the letter in the air, hoping that the bird would get it. Turns out, however, it made a quick dive to the letter and grabbed it with its feet. Fusa looked up with surprise and made a skate to the mail-lady, who stopped the timer to review the time. The woman's face was full of awe and surprise, to which she looked at the young 14-year-old girl with wide awed eyes.

"You made it by under the 20 second mark- 19 seconds, a new record," the mail-lady stated to Fusa before reaching in her pocket to get the munny out. "Here's your pay for the job well done." With that, the mail-lady gave her the 50 munny, allowing Fusa to accept it and put it in her pocket.

"Thank you, ma'am," Fusa thanked her before returning the skateboard and handbag to the lady and heading out of Market Street, running to Station Plaza to meet up with Hayner.

When she left, the man in the black cloak stood next to the lady without a word. Neither of them seem to acknowledge each other's existence.

* * *

Upon arriving to Station Plaza, Fusa saw Hayner standing a few yards away from the Central Station, along with Pence and Olette. They were just standing there without anything to say to each other. Fusa figured that they were waiting for her and approached them without a worry. When she arrived, they turned to her and gave a smile.

"You got the munny?" Hayner asked her.

"Yes- about 140 munny," Fusa answered upon showing him the earned munny and combining it to her own, "Now I have 290 munny in total."

"That'll work," he responded as Olette put the 290 munny into the handmade pouch to store the munny in. "So how much do we got, Olette?" Hayner asked the brunette haired girl as she counted up the munny in the pouch.

"We're 500 munny short of 4800, guys," she responded with dissatisfaction. Fusa frowned and looked away with worry that it was her fault. "We don't enough for the trip…"

"Well, what do we do with the munny, anyway?" Hayner asked before Pence looked over at Fusa with concern before looking at Olette with an idea.

"I think I have an idea," Pence stated before being given the munny pouch and walking over to Fusa, who turned to see him. "I think we should give the munny to Fusa. After all, she did work the hardest of the four of us out there. She deserves it." Then he placed the pouch in her hand with a smile.

"Guys, I-I don't know what to say about this," Fusa stammered with a flustered blush, holding the munny pouch in her hand. "But I don't truly deserve it. What about the beach trip? What about the pretzels? If it's alright with you, then I would buy-"

"But then there wouldn't be enough for you to join us," Hayner responded as he shook at his head with a chuckle. "After all, you're still our friend. Friends never forget each other. We can never forget each other in our hearts. Even when things look bleak, we would always remember the good times we share. Besides, we'll hit the beach before summer vacation ends."

"You're right, Hayner," Fusa responded with a bright smile, knowing that he was indeed right, "When we go, I promise to treat you guys to those pretzels." Then she remembered her invitation to Vivi that he would join them for ice cream. "Oh, and I invited Vivi for some sea-salt ice cream tomorrow. It's his first time trying it out."

"Well… all right, if that's what you want then we'll , _R-R-R-Rox-x-x-xas_," Hayner responded, to which the last part resembled a mixed up shortage, complete with a rapid head-shaking. Fusa shook her head as if she saw it and became puzzled by what happened- this wasn't like Hayner at all. Or perhaps the amount of work the odd jobs has made her delirious. Hayner cocked his head to the side and asked her as if nothing happened to him at all, "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's all right, yeah," Fusa answered with an unsure smile, not exactly figuring out what just happened.

* * *

On top of the Central Station clock tower, the four friends were sitting at the edge of the tower, eating some sea-salt ice cream. Fusa had the munny pouch in her backpack behind where she was sitting, to which she was sitting next to Olette. She was still confused about what happened with Hayner down in the Plaza. Was it something he ate or the amount of time being spent in this town was getting to her mentally? Either way, she hoped that Pence and Olette wouldn't be the same as well. Two questions rested easy in her head: Did the man in black have to do with what happened with Hayner? And who was this "Roxas" person?

"When we go to the beach, I know that I wanna try out surfing," Hayner stated to his friends as they, except for Fusa, looked at him to listen. "That sounds like a lot of fun. I heard that residents nearby are pros at it. Maybe Fusa can join in as well in learning on how to surf; we could even compete on who's better!"

"The pretzels sound delicious, but I also wonder if they sell sea-salt ice cream there as well," Pence pondered to himself as he ate his ice cream.

"Well, who knows? When we go, we'll check if they have sea-salt ice cream as well," Olette answered to Pence as he looked at her with a questioned look.

Only Fusa remained silent during the friends' conversations with each other. All except for one thought in her head: _What is going on here?_

* * *

Inside of the computer room under the mansion, DiZ was speaking with the man in the black cloak as he was at the multiple computer screens. He was reading one of the data outputs from whence Fusa is in and was intrigued by what he read. A peculiar reading, indeed.

"According to one of the codes for the Market Street figures, there are particles of a strange reading from the little Newborn when she did the Mail Delivery," DiZ stated as he printed out the readings for the man in black to read. "One moment it focused its heart on the birds, they became contaminated temporarily and became connected to it until it was done. Its heart could not be encoded, so it is spreading the power to those it focus on."

"So it has some sort of power?" the man in the black cloak inquired to DiZ.

"Certainly," the man in red answered with a laugh. "And consider the odd jobs as enrichment for the little one. After all, it deserves to have the munny pouch and she can have enough to buy some sea-salt ice cream."

"What about the glitch that just happened? Did you think she caught on and would find out?"

"I'll fix it so it wouldn't happen again. Just remember this: Newborn Nobodies are too naïve to even catch onto a little leak in the coding. But also keep in mind not to be sight whenever she is somewhere, otherwise the little Newborn would become suspicious. Newborns might be naïve, but they're not entirely dim either."

"Got it."

As he was running a clean-up on the data to remove the remaining contamination and to fix the leak, DiZ noticed one of the grey creatures squiggling into a grayish-black portal out of the town. He grew irritated when he realized that a Nobody had been in there the whole time, yet he didn't know if it was watching the young Newborn or not. One thing was for sure: the Organization would be onto them.

"Go into the town Roxas is in and scare off any of those Dusks away if they go too close to him and bring back that munny pouch he's planning to use for the beach," DiZ ordered the man in the black cloak when he turned to him. "Leave me to handle with the Organization if they go in."

* * *

On the very top of the Central Station clock tower in the real Twilight Town, above the actual clock, there stood another man in black. Unlike the one working with DiZ, he was lean and slim with narrow fitting sleeves. He was surrounded by multiple grey creatures like the ones in the virtual replica, as well as strange grey creatures with violet lines and spikes on their wing-like arms. His hood was up, keeping his identity a secret from anyone's sight.

The grey creature from inside of the stimulation entered from the portal and twitched up in a spineless squiggle up to the strange man. There, it started to whisper information into his ear when he leaned slightly to the right, where the creature was. He seemed to understand what the creature was "saying" and nodded as if he knew.

"Got it," the man excused the creature away before crossing his arms. He looked to the sunset of the world, his face barely shown with a sly grin. "So tell me where this 'Newborn Nobody' is at…"


	4. Chapter 3- Twilight Town: Captured

3rd Day

_Who's Roxas? Do we know him? Does he live here? Is he from out of town? Does he know Hayner? Why did Hayner call me Roxas? Are we related?_

* * *

Waking up from another dream, Fusa opened her eyes and carefully sat up on her bed in her pajamas. She was thinking about the previous day and how it made her confused. Out of thought, she simply scratched her head and looked out at the window for the town and its warm sunset. Perhaps she could forget about it when she would joins her friends at the Usual Spot. Once she thought of that, Fusa was able to get out of bed and dress in her usual outfit quickly for the day.

Once dressed in her outfit, putting her silver locket necklace around her neck, and putting her boots on, Fusa paused and snapped her head to the window to see if there was someone below. She thought that, for some reason, the man in black from the previous day was there again. That, and she thought she heard the sound of a heartbeat as well. Nonetheless, she figured that she must have been hearing and seeing things that do not make a lot of sense at all. She shrugged and finished getting dressed, eventually grabbing her backpack and making her way out of her home. She figured that a trip to the beach would make her feel better.

* * *

Upon arriving to the Usual Spot, Fusa noticed that her friends were no-where to be found at all. At first, she was a little worried that someone, maybe the man in the black cloak, had taken them for ransom. Then she noticed a note on the dark yellow furnace and walked forward to see what it says. A ransom note, she wondered a little. Luckily, she gave a sigh of relief when she read it.

Then she began to read it:

"To Fusa,

We're going to try heading to the beach today. You can bring Vivi along if you want to. No worries about the munny- we'll loan a bit from our parents and the rest will go the pretzels. If there's enough, then I'll buy us a quick surfing lesson for you and me. Meet us at the Central Station for the trip before the day ends!

Hayner"

Fusa gave off a smile when she read it, mainly because Hayner was allowing her to invite Vivi due to her promise to him. Perhaps it would mean making peace with the rest of the Committee as well. So, she grabbed her pencil and a piece of paper and jotted down a response to the note and put it down before heading out.

It read as followed:

"To my friends,

I'm going to be picking up some sea-salt ice cream and heading over to the train station to meet up with you guys. I'll pay for the train tickets, pretzels, and surf lessons galore. I'll bring the ice cream so that we wouldn't worry about buying some at the beach.

Like you said yourself, 'Friends never forget each other. We can never forget each other in our hearts. Even when things look bleak, we would always remember the good times we share.' I will always keep it in mind.

Fusa

P.S., let's not forget to invite Vivi as well!"

With that, she turned and left the Usual Spot, heading to Market Street without a worry in the world. In fact, she was planning on getting the sea-salt ice cream as promised. When she ran out, however, a couple of the grey creatures waited in the shadows in secret, just watching her. Rather than going after her, they went the other direction, where a man in black was leaning by the wall, just waiting.

* * *

At the ice cream shop in Market Street, Fusa approached to the front and took out the munny pouch out of her backpack and took out some munny to buy some ice cream. The owner of the shop placed four bars of sea-salt ice cream inside a bag and gave it to her. However, she knew that Vivi would like one, so she held up one finger and nodded her head, indicating for one more. The owner understood and added one more bar of ice cream into the bar, then gave her the bag. She handed him the munny and accepted the bag, putting the pouch in the backpack, thanking the owner, and heading away to the Sandlot to meet up with Vivi.

As she made her journey to the Sandlot, Fusa stopped in the Back Alley, when she thought that she heard someone close by. She figured that it was impossible to even think of It, since there was no one there. Or at least until she saw something in the corner of her eye that made her stomach twist. Below in Market Street, there was many people walking around, yet they were still as time has stopped. There was no sound, no motion, and no answer as to why this happened. All time seemed to stopped, all except for her.

She looked around with growing paranoia, thinking that she could be next in this strange phenomenon. Then she began to walk quickly to Tram Common to find the Committee to get Vivi so they could go to Station Plaza and meet up with her friends for the beach trip. That's when grey creatures suddenly appeared from the ground along with grey with violet lines and spikes on their wing-like arms. Fusa held tight to her bag of sea-salt ice cream and grew more frightened by the sight of these creatures trying to get to her. But why they weren't attacking her escaped her for the moment. Why she couldn't run kept her frozen with fear coursing in her veins. That, or she couldn't risk provoking the creatures to attack her when she ran.

That's when a dark portal appeared from the wall and a man in black with his hood up walked out of it. Fusa turned her head to the side to see who it was and dropped her bag out of panic. She knew, with a bad feeling, that this was not the same figure in black as the previous day- he had narrow sleeves that fitted his arms and his body was lean as well. This was a different man entirely.

"Looks like the rumors were true- there _is _someone else here," the figure spoke as he stopped upon coming out of the shadows to reveal himself in the sunset light. Fusa backed away a few steps out of fear that he would attack her. "I was going to get Roxas first and pick you up, but since I'm in here, I could twist the objectives for a bit."

_Wait, he knows who this "Roxas" person? _Fusa thought to herself as her breath hitched with fear.

"I would give you the full details, but we won't have time for a bit of Q&A," the man in black stated as strange circular weapons appeared in his hands like flames. "You're coming with me, kid, conscious or not. Mostly alive, though. Don't try to run away; otherwise I'll have to do it this the hard way." He held the weapons in his hands by the blades.

Fusa grew frightened that he would get the creatures to attack her. Yet why would he need her alive? And why would he need this "Roxas" person? Are they both targets in this little hunt? Before she could do anything, the man held his weapons in one hand and snapped his fingers for the creatures to attack her. They twitched and charged at her, squiggling into the air quickly towards her. She gasped out of fright and started running away, but became dog piled by the creatures. She was outnumbered and not strong enough to get them off of her. They were wrapping her body limbs and head, all except for one arm free. A few wrapped their boneless arms around her head, to which some type of energy was being drained from her.

"Someone help me, please…" she pleaded in repeats as many more collectively dog piled her more and blocked her light. Her voice could not carry out in an echo when she made her pleads. She felt like she was being crushed to the ground and thrashed down, pressure being applied to her body. So she was resorted to scream out her possible one last word as she reached out for help: "_**HEEEEEELP!**_"

Before the creatures could wrap around her free arm, Fusa felt something in her hand, much like the Struggle bat handle. Yet the texture was smooth with the touch of leather. A beam of light surrounded the creatures and they were thrown off of her, knocking them out temporarily. When the light was gone, Fusa was free; yet she was holding in her hand a key-like weapon with a magenta shine that could be mistaken as copper. The guard of the key had a light violet color, the rainguard was dark violet, and the teeth of the key resembled the outline of a disconnected heart. It had a long magenta keychain extending from the hilt with a heart token at the end of the chain. She was in awe by what she was seeing, yet could not understand why she had it.

Once the creatures were conscious, they twitched up and went after her again. Fusa had an idea to distract them and threw the weapon to the ground before running off quickly. It worked, for the creatures stopped to examine the weapon, distracting them. The man in black, however, watched her run off and teleported out of the area. Once Fusa was gone, the weapon disappeared in a flash of light, making the creatures confused.

As Fusa continued running, she was trying to find where the Sandlot was located in. The hard pressure on her body was forcing her to wind down, yet she continued to budge to continue in hopes to find the Committee to find out what was going on. She realized that something was wrong: her memory of the Sandlot was blank. She didn't know where it was now. She didn't know what those creatures did to her that caused this. However, when she tried running again, she felt like she was being driven to the ground again.

There was no other choice but to find a place to hide and to think things through so she could figure out what was really going on. So Fusa rushed over to the closest wall to hide behind and had her back to the wall, breathing hard yet trying to keep herself silent. The grey creatures were wriggling in the air, trying to find her, as if they were thinking that she went ahead. When they were gone, she gave an exhausted and quiet sigh of relief. Now all she need to do was to get the map out and find the Sandlot so she could do something of importance. It was on the tip of her tongue, yet she didn't know what.

Before she could get the map out, however, a strong force hit her by the back of her neck, causing her to fall to the ground unconscious. It was the man in black, who located her when she arrived to hide. When she fell, he shook his hand out and walked forward to examine his new captive. He took hold of her jacket, to which she slumped over, and carried her unconscious body over his shoulder.

"I did warn ya," he quipped as he opened up a dark portal with his free hand, using the other to hold the unconscious girl. "Besides, we're getting out of here and your head is going to be clean from everything that no longer matter now."

Then he entered into the dark portal, carrying Fusa with him, and they left the town for good.

* * *

An alarm went off in the computer room, where DiZ was in, when he saw what was happening to Fusa inside of the virtual town. His free eye of an orange color widened with horror in the midst of his calm demeanor. He realized that she was taken out of his creation, the only sanctuary where she could be safe until the time comes. Now he felt helpless to get her back from the man in black.

He stood up from his chair and walked away to give himself some time to think about what happened. That's when the man in the black cloak, the one from the previous day, teleported from the other virtual town. DiZ snapped his head to him with a hard glare yet knew that it was pointless to lash out at him.

"The Organization found out about the Newborn Nobody and sent that meddling redhead to collect it," he stated to the figure, looking away. "Those pesky Dusks took out the implanted memories and tracking device. Now they are deemed worthless without the one to hold them in. I wanted to get it out and let it join Roxas, but that would mean damaging the healing process."

"What about the town you created for her?" the figure asked him, unfazed about what has happened.

"I'll have to rewrite the area to make a different location for Roxas to play in, remove all data that is in it, and erase anything that holds prove that she ever existed in it," DiZ answered, going back to sit down in front of the screens. "There are, however, a few things I want to keep as souvenirs. Bring me the letter it made for its 'friends' before I reconstruct the area's code."

Before the figure left for what he needed to bring, he paused and inquired to DiZ, "About the girl… what brought you to the decision to allow her in there in the first place?"

"Ask me about it later," he answered, waving off the question. Inside, however, he felt hurt by what has happened. He only hoped that the girl would be all right.

* * *

In the Gummi Ship, Gremlin Gus was searching for Traverse Town on the map close to the wheel as Max fiddled with his skateboard, pretending to hit enemies with it. In the reflection of the break proof glass window, Gus only chuckled at the young Knight's actions. He figured that the young lad needed to kill boredom in the meantime. He gave a sad smile to himself that Max, despite his youth, missed his father dearly, despite the many times the Captain seemed to turn him red in the face.

A sight of a globe world caught Gus's attention as he halted the Gummi Ship and circled around the world. He saw that it was in cool browns with dim lights aglow in it and building sticking out like sore thumbs. He read on the screens that it was Traverse Town. Max looked up to see the world and his eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"What's the matter, lad? Never seen a world like this before?" Gus quipped humorously with a chuckle.

"No," Max answered as he turned to the Gremlin pilot. "I thought it would look like an actual town, not like a planet with splinters."

"I didn't come up with the world's design," Gus joked before chuckling to himself, much to Max's embarrassment. This type of embarrassment reminded him too much of his father, which made the young Knight slightly sad about it. Gus stopped chuckling and patted the lad's shoulder out of reassurance before turning ahead to grab the wheel and flew the Ship to the entrance of the world. All they needed to do now was to wait for Yen Sid's final word on the manner.


	5. Chapter 4- Twilight Town: Departure

Inside a dimly lit room in the real Twilight Town, far away from the mansion, Fusa was on top of a dark red colored covered bed in her white undergarments, still wearing her silver locket and her backpack was close to the bedside. When she woke up, her vision was blurry and her neck was throbbing a bit with pain. She sat up with a light groan, her vision clearing up. She was trying to remember what has happened to her. But as she was looking around the room, she spotted a man and gasped with fear, backing up into the head of the bed. One thing was for sure: she remembered who was after her.

The man in black, the same that had captured her, had his hood down and revealed what he truly looks like. He had slicked back spiky hair of fiery red extending from a widow's peak and two little hairs sticking out to the front, eyes of bright green, and a pair of violet teardrop markings under his eyes. He was leaning against a closed door and was watching her while she was unconscious.

"Guess who decided to wake up after all…" he mused to himself out loud with a chuckle as he got off of the wall and walked over to the bed. Fusa backed up into the corner of the bed out of fear in small whimpers, not wanting him to touch her again.

"Relax, kid, and take it easy," he spoke to her in a leisurely tone as he sat on the foot of the bed and talked causally to her with his arms crossed. "You're out of that place anyway. Besides, it's part of my orders from my boss." She remained silent; he only remembered about what he was told and rolled his eyes that he forgot. "Oh, I forgot that you don't know what you are. Let me clue you in about it, then. First off, you're what my fellow members and I call a 'Newborn Nobody'."

"New…born?" Fusa quietly repeated slowly, trying to believe him.

"Yep, exactly what you are," he answered with a nod. "I'm a Nobody, a very different topic altogether. Where I have no heart but I belong to this group- Organization XIII- to get one soon, you have a heart of your own but no memories and soon no identity to claim. In fact, you're nothing more than a template to make Lesser Nobodies."

Fusa became shocked by what she heard. Was he bluffing or was he telling the truth? Is he hiding something? She shook her head and placed her hands on her head.

"You're lying…" she quietly responded, trying to get the information out of her head. "My friends will find out where I am and-"

"They're not coming," the man answered, his cocky attitude dropped to a cold tone. "And here is the reason why. The town you thought you were living in? Fake. The memories of the life you thought you had? Fake and implanted for _his_ sick amusement. Those so-called 'friends' you thought you were hanging out with? All fake. This is reality- you don't have friends, and you won't have friends."

Her heart dropped when she heard him say this to her. So her entire life inside the town was nothing more than lies. She didn't want to believe him; the fact that she was not human, her friends never existed, she had no memories, and that she was a "template" for Lesser Nobodies, whatever those were.

"I don't believe you…" she responded to him with her head down.

The man stood up and used two of his gloved fingers to lift her chin up so they could see eye-to-eye. He noticed that her light pink eyes were full of disbelief and confusion, the perfect emotions that Newborn Nobodies have when they find out. He pulled his hand away, allowing her to lower her head down. Then he began to turn away and walk away. He stopped when he remembered something important.

"I guess you wanted my name, right? No harm in a little intro," he stated as she looked at him as if she had given up hope. He then introduced himself to her to at least lighten the mood, "The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" When he said this, he put a finger to his temple, as a gesture to remember it.

Fusa nodded and uneasily put a finger next to her temple, copying his action a bit.

"You got a name?" he inquired her with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Mine is Fusa," she responded in a low voice when she lowered her hand back on her knees.

The redhead, Axel, turned away to the door and opened it. He turned his head halfway to her and stated to her, "I'm going back to get Roxas. In the meantime, stay put in here until I get back. Try not to do anything stupid in the meantime. Oh, and there's an outfit prepared for you so that we can prepare you to join your fellow siblings. See ya later." Then he opened the door, went through, and closed it, locking the door and walking away into a dark portal that was waiting for him.

* * *

Moments after Axel left Fusa alone in the room, she was sitting on the edge of the bed with her head down, trying to absorb what he said to her. Even if he was telling the truth, she had doubts that she wanted to meet the rest of this "organization" he was in. She wanted to see her friends again, even if they were fake. She still remembered the words Hayner told her: "Friends never forget each other. We can never forget each other in our hearts. Even when things look bleak, we would always remember the good times we share." She repeated them in her mind as she made a decision and turned her head to the closet, where an outfit of silver gray was waiting for her. Then she stood up and walked over to the outfit.

Once getting the outfit off of the hanger, Fusa dressed in the outfit and its shoes. Though it was a little tight, at least it had more decency than her undergarments. The outfit itself was of silver gray with a dark line running both sides of the sleeveless shirt with one zipper running down the front, a pair of matching capri pants, and matching slip-on shoes with dark caps. She also had one dark blue belt around her shorts, two matching belts that criss-cross on her chest, and two dark blue bands on her wrists and above her elbows. Last but not least, she had her silver locket around her neck, but had to tuck it into her shirt. At least it was to protect it from that Axel guy.

Now that she was dressed, Fusa directed her attention to the window close to the bed and held her hand out. She tried to remember how to summon the strange key-like weapon in her hand again or she thought that she left it for good in the fake Twilight Town. While she waited to get the weapon, she lowered her arm and hurried to get her backpack on. Once she put her backpack on, she rushed back to the window to try again.

Knowing that time wasn't on her side and that Axel would be back at any minute, Fusa had to find something to open the window with. Then she spotted a picture frame on the desk and quickly grabbed it. With it, she began to pound the glass with one of the edges of the frame, making a few cracks until the window broke, pieces falling to the ground. She made the cracked hole larger so she wouldn't be cut to pieces.

Once she got the window open, Fusa took the bed covers and made a make-shift rope from them and tied the "rope" to the bedpost so she would have something to hold onto when she makes her escape. She tugged on it three times to make sure it was secure and tight. Then she got the confirmation that it was good for a climb down, Fusa looked down the window for the distance down the rope. It was good enough, and climbed out of the window carefully, holding onto the make-shift rope.

In her escape, Fusa had her feet to the wall, to which she began to scale down the wall with the rope in her hands. She told herself not to look down lest she wanted to risk death in the escape. Then again, she was risking death from the redhead, so she was risking death twice. All she needed to do now was hope that her friends were waiting for her.

Upon coming down to the ground, Fusa landed her feet to the cobbled floor and tossed the rope to the side of the broken window before running away from the building. All she needed to do now was to find the Usual Spot… wherever it was at least. She hoped that she still has the map from the previous day in her backpack.

Back in the abandoned room, Axel unlocked the door and opened it, only to find that his captive had escaped while he was gone. He gritted his teeth with fury as he clenched his fists, knowing that the little Newborn has ignored what he told her and decided to leave. However, he found it no point to go after her at the moment. Instead, he stated to himself with a sigh as he opened his hands and scratched his head with one of them, "Looks like I gotta tell the boss about it…"

* * *

As Fusa ran, she hurried to Tram Common until she skidded to a halt and found that the man in black wasn't going after her. She blew a sigh of relief knowing that she escaped his clutches, or at least for now. She was worried that he would go after her and do worse to her to keep her from running away again. Now was not the time to think about it.

At the wall, Fusa took her backpack off and opened it to find the map, pulling it out and reading it carefully. She would have to go into the Back Alley to find it, according to the map. Once she looked in the general direction, Fusa rolled the map up and put back into her backpack before putting the backpack on and heading to the direction to the Usual Spot.

"Once I get to my friends," she told herself as she ran to the Back Alley for the Usual Spot. "We'll go out for sea-salt ice cream. Then I can get out of this nightmare." Fusa had to ignore what Axel had told her and moved on until she reached to the Back Alley and stopped to catch her breath. She was trying to remember what she and her "friends" were going to do the day before. She didn't know whether or not Axel was right about "implanted" memories being removed from her head. Still, she wanted to forget his words.

Upon arriving to the Back Alley, Fusa looked down at her outfit and brushed dust off so she would be presentable. Then she began walking to the Usual Spot entrance so she could make herself known to her friends. When entering the Usual Spot, Fusa noticed that they were hanging around rather than preparing a trip to the beach. However, they took notice of her and stood up from their seats. Her light pink eyes gleamed with happiness when she saw them again and headed deeper into the hideout.

"Guys, it's great to see you again," she stated to them as they looked at her with puzzled faces. "What did I miss while I was gone? Did you guys go somewhere without me?" She noticed their expressions and asked them again, "Is there something wrong?"

"Here's a better question: how did you know where we hang out, anyway?" Hayner inquired to her in a suspicious tone as he raised an eyebrow at her. Fusa was a little surprised that he spoke to her like that. Then he explained to her, "Listen, only we occupy this hangout. I didn't see that you got our permission to be in here, did I?"

"I thought we would hang out-" she tried to say, but was cut off by Pence.

"There's a problem: we don't exactly know each other well…" he stated to her with a slightly concerned look. "Maybe you thought your friends are here instead?"

"No, you guys are my friends," Fusa responded, trying to convince them otherwise, shaking her head. "Then prove it," Hayner tested her as he crossed his arms, "Where were we going to go to tomorrow?"

"We were-" she tried to say, but couldn't remember what. "We were… we were…" she repeated as she struggled to remember, but nothing came up. "I… I can't remember…"

"Maybe you're confused," Olette stated to her as she and Pence approached her to comfort her. "I'm sorry, but we're not the friends you think we are."

Fusa looked down with hurt, realizing that Axel was right. The friends in the fake Twilight Town were fake as well. She bonded with nothing more than cardboard replicas of the real people. She felt betrayed, lied to. Now it was pointless to convince them that she was still their friend, because she was no longer one. She looked forward, feeling pain in her eyes, and sighed to herself.

"Then I'm sorry for wasting your time…" Fusa apologized to the trio, not knowing what to do except one thing: "I need to go to the train station."

"We'll guide you there," Pence stated as the trio walked out of the Usual Spot, Fusa following behind. The only thing she wanted to do now was to leave this place as soon as possible to anywhere far away from here.

As she followed the trio, however, a few grey creatures were watching and squiggling to the Central Station, a black and gray portal opening up to let them inside.

* * *

When they arrived to Station Plaza, Fusa kept her head down with gloom, holding back tears of her pain. She looked up to see the clock tower of the Central Station and lowered her head again, following the trio. Before she could reach to the steps, she heard a sickening sound and snapped her head up with shock. She thought she recognized that sound from somewhere, until she turned around and saw a few grey creatures squiggling towards her. She realized that it was the same sound from the same creatures when she was attacked before.

Before they could go near her, Fusa held her hand out and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that the key-like weapon would return. She focused on it appearing in her hand, trying to remember its appearance from before. They stopped and twitched before making the jump on her to attack. Before they could, a flash of light forced them to jump back out of panic. Fusa felt the same leather texture gripped in her hand, so she opened her eyes to find that the weapon was in her hand again. The creatures twitched and squirmed with boneless motion as they waited for her to attack them first. However, Fusa kept on examining it, to which it started to point at them, as if it was fueled by power.

When the creatures twitched again, they made the jump again. This time, the weapon let out a ray of light that hit one of them. Fusa tried to stop it, but the ray continued to overwhelm the creature, its' zipper wriggling as if it was screaming. Without warning, it exploded into grey and black pieces, dark misty smoke coming out of the pieces. Fusa was in total shock, eyes wide and mouth gaping open. The creatures seemed to look at what was left of their comrade, then they looked at each other before teleporting away without a chance to attack Fusa again.

The 14-year-old girl looked at the vanishing pieces and back to the weapon, which it disappeared in a flash of light from her hand. She didn't know what to think of it. A weapon like that could do a lot of damage to creatures like the one it destroyed. Yet did that power come from her and transferred to the weapon? She didn't want to know it. Once she saw it was safe to go, Fusa entered into the station to meet up with the Usual Spot trio.

* * *

Inside the station, at the ticket booth, Pence was speaking to the man at the booth, explaining to him on what was going on when Fusa entered inside. He and Olette looked ahead to her as Hayner waited, since they were waiting for her to arrive since they came here first. Pence gestured over to Fusa so she could order herself a ticket for the train, to which she walked over to them and to the booth.

"One single rider ticket, please," Fusa spoke to the man in the booth.

"Destination, miss?" the man at the booth inquired.

"Anywhere from here, please," she answered to him.

"There's a train leaving for out of town soon if you're interested in that," he stated to her as he leaned in and pointed to a soft violet colored train with a wizard hat at the top and stars at the side. Fusa noticed the train and figured that as long as it was the only way to leave Twilight Town, it would be the only way for her.

"That'll do, please."

"It'll be 900 munny, kid," he responded to her with a nod.

With that said, Fusa took her backpack off and took out the munny pouch, thus prompting the three kids to become puzzled by its appearance. Olette took out her own, which had the same appearance as Fusa's own. Fusa, however, didn't notice and simply took out 900 munny for the man, to which he accepted it and gave her a train ticket in return. She took the ticket and put it in her capri pants pocket as well as put the pouch back into her backpack, putting it back on.

She hesitated going up the steps at first, feeling that despite living in a fake Twilight Town, it was still her home. The three kids looked at each other and went over to her when she didn't budge.

"Is everything okay?" Hayner asked her with concern.

"Everything's all right, yeah," Fusa responded with a fake smile, masking her hesitation from the three. Then she began her ascent on the steps to the trains.

* * *

Inside of the Station, Fusa spotted a small treasure chest close-by in the corner wall feet away from the starry train and walked over to it. She noticed that it had a orange shade with golden rims and a keyhole to protect it. Almost immediately as she walked over to it, the key-like weapon appeared into her hand in a flash of light and forced her hand to insert the teeth into the keyhole, turning to the left and unlocking it. Fusa became surprised that it could do that, yet it disappeared before she could anything.

Hoping that no one was watching, Fusa went down to one knee and carefully opened the chest up. In it was a blue jar with glitter sprinkled on it and a green flower on it, as well as a label that reads "Potion". Potion or poison- she shook her head and placed it in her backpack for later uses.

"All aboard!" the conductor of the starry train announced as Fusa snapped her head to the train, stood up, and quickly walked over to the train.

The three kids waited so they could watch her leave, yet she wanted to speak to them before leaving. She wanted to make them a promise; they expected a final goodbye.

"Are you going to come back someday?" Pence asked her as she looked at them.

"I- I can't say for sure," Fusa could only answer honestly. When she said this, her mask to hide her hesitation slipped and she frowned. "But someone once told me this: 'Friends never forget each other. We can never forget each other in our hearts. Even when things look bleak, we would always remember the good times we share.' I hope he was right."

"Final call!" the conductor called as Fusa turned her head to the train before reverting her body to the train to head over. Before she walked to the conductor, she turned her head to the three kids and sadly bid them, "Goodbye."

Then she took her steps to the train and gave the conductor her ticket and stepped inside the train. Once she got in and sat in one of the seats near the window, no one else stepped in and the door closed when the conductor stepped in to the take the reins. She leaned back against the soft cotton seat and looked up at the starry ceiling, just staring at it. She never understood why, but when she saw those three kids, she could only shed tears the harder she stared at the painted stars.

Once it was time, the train made its leave from the station and the trio. They looked to each other as if they felt something tug their heartstrings. Yet, they didn't know what it was. What was it about that girl that caused them to feel this way?

"Who was that girl, anyway?" Hayner asked as he crossed his arms in thought.

"I don't know," Pence answered as Olette looked at him. "But she seemed a bit upset…"

* * *

Inside of the train, Fusa kept her head down and her hands on her knees, trying to remember what happened in the fake Twilight Town. Yet she wondered why she was even in there in the first place. Just as she was trying to remember, a bright light wrapped around the train and space itself seemed to increase speed.

"Huh?" Fusa squeaked upon seeing light surrounding the train and teleporting it into a groundless environment. Her eyes widen and her mouth was left gaping open with surprise by what she saw.

She looked outside to find the sky was full of aurora lights of multiple shades of green and looked down to see the ground was absent, replaced with warm oranges on cloud-like surfaces much like the sun instead. It would be impossible to think of how the rails would remain still without something to hold onto it, or at least to prevent it from falling below. Fusa then noticed lush green mountaintops rising from the ground as the train drew closer to a floating island with a crooked golden brown tower and blue rooftops decorated in light stars and moons, surrounded by pine trees covered by soft green grass and a dirt pathway. She also saw that the top of the largest cone roof had two golden stars and a lone moon in the middle, much to her curiosity as she grabbed her backpack.

Before there was more to see, the train came to a halt close to the floating island, which the courtyard showed the dirt pathway to the crooked tower. The door opened to let the young girl out, though she didn't seem to exit out yet. Her eyes were fixated on the tower's appearance and the new area. However, Fusa had no other choice but to walk onto the ground, finding that it was perfectly still when she made her steps. When she started walking away from the train, it started to disappear itself. She turned her head to see it vanish into a beam of light, shaking her head while trying to believe what she saw.

"It's gone…" she mumbled to herself in disbelief.


	6. Chapter 5- Mysterious Tower: Knowledge

Upon her arrival to the Mysterious Tower, Fusa was walking on the dirt trail to the steps of the entrance doors. She wondered if there was someone that could be able to explain to her about the creatures that were trying to capture her as well as the weapon. However, she was nervous, too. What if the person living here rejects her presence and send her back to Twilight Town? What if the creatures are here, too? She didn't want to think about it. All she needed to do was to remain calm and polite.

Fusa then made her ascent up the steps and to the doors, looking way up at the crooked structures that waited inside. Once she fixed her shirt, she made three knocks to the right door, an echo ringing out outside. She backed up by a step by the echo, not knowing what would happen next.

A few moments later, the doors were pulled in, revealing three kind elderly women of red, green, and blue clothing at the entrance. Only the women in red and green had gray hair while the woman in blue had dark hair, yet their hats were conical with chinstraps from tinted cloth, their dresses were long-sleeved, and their broaches secured their capes. Fusa were surprised by their appearances and their manners, wondering if they were owners of the tower itself.

"Oh, come inside, dearie," the elderly woman in green spoke to Fusa as the women brought her inside and closed the door.

"There's no need to worry, dear," the elderly woman in red assured to Fusa as they brought to the stairs and led her up there.

"Oh yes, Master Yen Sid is waiting for you," the elderly woman in blue informed the young girl as they traveled up the stairs. "He was told about you from the moment the letter arrived."

"Who?" Fusa questioned out of confusion. The three women only tittered to themselves at the question. They knew that this one had yet to meet the owner of the tower himself in person.

* * *

When they reached to the largest room of the tower, the elderly woman in blue approached the doors and lifted the door handle, pulling the door out. Then she poked her head into the room, to which Fusa raised an eyebrow out of puzzlement.

"Master Yen Sid, we found a young girl here," the woman in blue spoke in a hushed voice as her fellow companions and the 14-year-old waited. "Is this the aforementioned Keyblade wielder that was to be sent to you?" Without a word, she pulled back and turned her head to Fusa, stating to her quietly, "He would like to see you right away."

The other two women, or fairies as Fusa noticed that they had small yet tinted triangular wings on their backs, looked to her so she would approach the doors to go inside. Though perplexed as to why, she stepped forward and entered inside of the room. She saw that the room was a magnificent study of sorts, holding shelves of books and windows shaped as stars and moons looking out of the courtyard. However, the door closed behind her as she spotted the owner of the tower, Master Yen Sid, and approached the desk where he sat behind. Despite not knowing if he was good or bad, she went down to one knee, placed a hand to her heart out of respect, and lowered her head.

"Rise, young one," he spoke, to which Fusa lifted her head at him and stood straight up to listen. "There is no need to be humble for the time being. After all, you've recently arrived here. Though you've arrived a few days early, it does not matter now." He examined her outfit with narrowed eyes before asking her, "What is your name, young one?"

"Fusa, sir," she answered, feeling a bit nervous.

"I am Master Yen Sid," he introduced to her in a firm tone, "A former student of mine had informed me of your presence in Twilight Town and has requested me to train you the ways of the Keyblade once you were ready."

"A 'Key-blade'?" Fusa asked in a puzzled voice, crossing her arms without knowledge of what it was.

Yen Sid nodded and explained to her, "A weapon used to protect the light and to fight the Darkness, or vice versa. I take it that you haven't summoned yours yet?"

"Actually, I…" Fusa tried to explain, but words lost her and she looked away without anything else to say. Her mind became focused with the key-like weapon, accidentally summoning it in her hand. She became surprised by its appearance in a flash of light; Yen Sid, however, remained calm by its appearance.

"Do not panic by its sudden appearance, Fusa," he stated to her serenely as she held the weapon in her hand. "Though it would be difficult to adjust to at first, your heart would relax and allow the Keyblade to appear in your hand when you need it. In your training, there will be many enemies that you will need to fight, some that will be drawn to your Keyblade while others wish to swallow the light into darkness. However, it is not the only power you have."

"It's not? What do you mean, Master?" Fusa asked him curiously.

"I have sensed a power beyond Light and Darkness when you arrived here- a power that roots from the seeds of your heart," he answered to her, using a hologram of two hearts in the right wing of the study, to which she turned her full attention to it. "You have the attribute of Heart, a peculiar power indeed, yet it is powerful. Depending on what you use it for, it can be used for good intentions and for bad intentions as well."

"Good and bad…" Fusa repeated to herself in a low voice, waiting for what would happen next.

"In the first example, the heart before you is broken from dark forces," Yen Sid began to explain, the first heart shown to be full of crack marks, "If you choose to heal it, then you can mend it." When he said this, the crack marks began to disappear with rising light. "However, if you choose to stop it, then you can break it." As he spoke this, the crack marks returned to cover the heart again. Then the hologram disappeared.

"In the second example, the heart before you is overcome by Darkness, or destroyed," he continued as the second heart was covered in a dark color, "If you choose to save it, then you can create a new heart." With that, a burst of light lightened the heart to good as new once again. "However, if you choose to terminate it, then you can destroy the heart." As he said this, the heart was broken into pieces. Then the hologram disappeared as well.

"To mend and break, to create and destroy," Yen Sid concluded to Fusa as she returned her attention to him, "Those are the abilities that the power of Heart possesses. It does not limit with just hearts. It extends to bonds as well- from bonds with yourself and to others, to those that know each other. However, it will not work on one's external appearance and memories. Nonetheless, you will use it to your advantage in your training, using the enemies' strength against each other, to boost power in your allies, and to control creatures when you need them most."

"Are there information about the enemies, sir?" Fusa asked him as her Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light.

Yen Sid then used his magic to have a large book appear before him and open as he responded to her, "When you are ready, then we will discuss the enemies in your journey. There is a map inside of the treasure chest that you shall need to venture in here. Perhaps it would help curb your ability to summon the Keyblade in the meantime."

Fusa turned her head to find a larger treasure chest by the wall of the study and walked over to it. Unlike the chest in the Central Station, where it was small and had an orange shade, she noticed that this one had a dark blue color and golden rims to protect it. Upon approaching it, she opened her hand and allowed her body to relax, thus summoning the Keyblade in her hand in a flash of light. Once it was in her hand, she inserted the teeth into the lock and turned the key to the right, unlocking it.

When it was unlocked, Fusa went to one knee and opened the chest, revealing the map as Yen Sid spoke of. She allowed the weapon to disappear in a flash of light from her hand so she could get the map out of the chest and put it in her backpack for safekeeping. Still, it wouldn't hurt to learn about these "enemies" she must fight. With the decision to know, Fusa then walked back to Yen Sid and nodded her head, indicating that she was ready.

"The enemies you will see are harbingers of Darkness- they are drawn to the Keyblade and the light's warmth," Yen Sid explained to her as she listened to him, allowing a hologram of a pitch black creature with antennas and dotted yellow eyes sniffing out its next meal. "They are known as the Heartless. They can appear from Darkness to attack worlds and their residents, with chances to multiply. Some will look like the one you see before you, others will look monstrous. Be wary of this fact!"

"Heart…less," Fusa repeated to herself in a quiet voice, processing the word in her head for memory.

Then another hologram appeared- this time, of one of the grey creature that ambushed her. Fusa took a few steps back with fear that it would be real. However, Yen Sid remained unfazed, yet aware of her rooted trauma.

"The creature you see before you is known as a Nobody, specifically a Dusk, the most common form of Nobody," he continued to explain as the hologram of the creature just stood without doing anything, "If one has a strong heart and will- be they good or evil- becomes a Heartless, the empty shell they leave behind begin to act with a will of its own. An empty vessel whose heart has been stolen away… A spirit that goes on even as its body fades from existence, for you see, Nobodies do not truly exist at all."

Fusa thought about what he said for a moment. "Do I exist then?" she wondered to herself, not knowing about it.

"Nobodies may seem to have feelings, but this is a ruse- they only pretend to have hearts. Unlike the Heartless, where they attack by instinct, Nobodies can think and plan their attacks. Based on your reaction, you've already seen Dusks like the one you see before you. However, they are Lesser Nobodies- not like Organization XIII." When he said this, three holograms of men in black cloaks appeared with hoods up. "They command the Lesser Nobodies and are working for a goal- a goal we do not know of."

"What about 'Newborn Nobodies' like me? Are there any more out there? Or were?" Fusa questioned him. She wanted to know if there was more like her. He nodded and a hologram of a male a year older than her with swept up silver-gray hair, dark eyes, and an outfit much similar to hers appeared.

"Now a Newborn Nobody, like the one you see before you, is much different from the other Nobodies," Yen Sid answered to her as the hologram just stood there. "Unlike the previous forms of Nobodies, Newborns are born with hearts and they have strong yet uncontrolled powers much like you. However, they lack memories to their past and they are immaturely developed. They are created when one loses their heart yet the process for them to develop takes longer than a Nobody's process. Based on my knowledge, there has been many Newborns in the past and all, including the one you see before you, has been taken in by Organization XIII and warped into Lesser Nobodies, physically and mentally."

"But why?" she asked again.

"The Organization, it appeared, viewed Newborns as nothing more than templates to create Lesser Nobodies to increase their population and to remove the Newborns' hearts by force," Yen Sid answered again as Fusa examined the hologram carefully. "Why they would do that is unknown. The process has been proven to be traumatizing and unfortunate, considering that all have not lived long to tell the tales of what goes on. In your case, young one, you are the only reported Newborn Nobody to escape such a fate like this."

Fusa thought about what Yen Sid said to her for a minute. Whoever placed her inside of the fake Twilight Town wasn't trying to imprison her, but actually trying to protect her from this Organization XIII group, their lackeys, and that strange redhead.

"Now that you understand the enemies that you will face, the powers that you will use in your journey, and the information about what you are," Yen Sid spoke to Fusa as she listened to him and the holograms vanished, "You will be training under my wing for the next three days. In the three days, you will given knowledge of using the Keyblade and your powers at your side to control and to craft. Once the three days are over, you will be sent to Traverse Town so you will meet with your new companions for your journey. Are we clear, Fusa?"

She nodded as a response and answered to him, "Yes, Master."

* * *

Outside of the study and descending down the stairs, the good fairy in blue led Fusa to the Star Chamber with glowing stars podiums circling around the rooms. According to Yen Sid, she would be given a room of her own to stay in during her training. However, she was confused as to _where_ it would be, judging by the outward appearance of the Tower.

When the fairy in blue approached the star podium closest to the door, she pulled out a star shaped trinket from her sleeve and held it in front of the podium, making it glow brighter, before giving the trinket to Fusa. The young girl took it and held it in her hand with a puzzled expression, but looked at the glowing podium.

"You'll need it to enter and exit your temporary chambers, dear," the fairy explained to Fusa as the latter turned her head to her, "Although it may not act as any door, Master Yen Sid wanted to keep the rooms a secret unless they have the key to the rooms."

"So there are more rooms than the tower has?" Fusa asked her with surprise, wondering if there was something that was fueling the tower to be like this.

"You could say that," the fairy in blue answered with a nod.

From a beam of light coming from the podium formed as a shape of a door with a golden star outlined on the "door". Fusa made a few steps forward before bright light surrounded her and caused her to disappear from the Chamber. However, the fairy in blue didn't seem bothered by what happened. In fact, she had a feeling that it would happen one way or another.

Inside a quaint round room with a comfortable bed near a narrow window and a moon shaped desk, Fusa opened her eyes and became in awe of what she saw. She looked around the room while still holding the trinket in her hand before putting it into her shirt pocket. On the ceiling above her, she noticed, were constellations of the nighttime sky crafted from stars surrounding lights of moon-shaped lanterns and was surprised by the amount of work used to create such a beautiful room. Once her eyes settled on the desk, she noticed a journal book that was held delicate pages with an age beyond her own and examined it.

_It has a lock on the front, but there's no key…_ Fusa thought to herself as she put her backpack down next to the desk and picked the book up, examining it. _That's odd, yet there's something familiar about it._

There was not a cover on the front nor information on whom it was from. Still, she figured, it wouldn't hurt to put it in her backpack. Thus she did place it in her backpack before putting it back down next to the desk and sitting down on the bed. While on the bed, Fusa decided to lay down and looked up at the constellation stars above her, still thinking about what Yen Sid had told her about what happened to the Newborn Nobodies. Was it true that she was the only free Newborn Nobody? Why would Organization XIII force their hearts out and make them Lesser Nobodies? It didn't make sense to her at all.

As she continued to think to herself, however, a knock came to her door. She sat up and stood up from the bed, using the trinket to exit the room to itself. Outside waiting for her was the fairy in red with a calm expression on her face. Fusa was slightly confused as to why; then again, there were going to be surprises at every turn for her.

"Master Yen Sid wishes to see you out in the courtyard," she informed Fusa as she led the young girl down the stairs and through the Moon Chamber.

"Thank you, miss…" Fusa answered, yet she knew not of the fairy's name at all.

"Oh, my name is Flora," the fairy answered when they exited the Moon Chamber and descended down the spiral staircase. "The others are Fauna and Merryweather, the one that showed you to your room."

Fusa nodded to show that she listened as they reached to the entry room and headed outside to the courtyard, where the other two fairies and Yen Sid were waiting for them. She noticed there were a few barrels with painted stars on the other side of the courtyard, yet she didn't know what exactly. When they joined up with the sorcerer and the two fairies, Yen Sid turned to Fusa as she listened to what he had to say.

"The first task you will do for today is to practice attacks," he instructed to her as she paid attention to him. "I understand that you are not used to physical attacks. However, in the times that when worlds are peril of the Darkness, wielding the Keyblade would remain most useful in these times of need. For now, let's start with these barrels as practice."

Fusa turned her head to find the barrels in question waiting for her and opened her right hand, to which she summoned her Keyblade without flinching this time. She felt a light flow in her system, almost as if it was the power to summon the Keyblade in her hand. If it was, she figured to herself, then it was flowing with quick grace.

"You will learn three basic attacks with your Keyblade: Thrust, Vertical Slash, and Horizontal Slash," Yen Sid explained to Fusa as he showed a hologram that demonstrated the attacks for her. "They are strong individually, yet stronger when combined in combos with each other or with

She watched as the hologram was wielding a star-like Keyblade and was facing against one of the shadow Heartless in front of him. There, he charged forward with Keyblade in hand and made a thrust of the weapon, then a vertical swing at it, and finished it off with a horizontal swing, destroying the creature entirely. Once the demonstration was over with, the hologram disappeared. Now it was her turn to try it out on the barrels.

With her Keyblade in her hand, she made steps forward to the first barrel in front of her and picked up the pace to it. Memorizing what she saw from the hologram, she gripped the handle of the weapon with both hands and made her first vertical strike on the barrel, then a horizontal strike and finished it with a forward strike. This destroyed the wood and from the wreckage, she noticed that there was a few green orbs inside of it with a distinct lime scent coming from them. She wasn't sure if those were poisonous or not.

"The green orbs you see before you are actually Health Orbs and those are dropped when you defeat an enemy," Yen Sid explained to Fusa as he walked over to her. "They can be absorbed when you approach them to restore what's been lost from your health. Munny can also be dropped from enemies as well."

"Is it safe to use the Health Orbs?" she asked him, not sure if he was telling the truth. He nodded as a "yes" to her question.

Once it was confirmed, she touched one of the Orbs, which all of the few Orbs that were dropped from the broken barrel disappeared, leaving her hand in a temporary green glow. She grew surprised that they left a remarkable key lime taste on her tongue when they were absorbed into her hand. Still , she was still surprised that she actually made her first attack on something, a barrel even. She was unaware that it was merely the beginning.

"Now that you've made your strike on the first barrel," Yen Sid stated to Fusa as she paid attention to him, "Practice the basic attacks on the other two barrels to adjust to your new strength." She cocked her head to the side without knowing what he meant by this, then realized what he meant.

She looked to the other two barrels and to her Keyblade, thinking that she could use the same technique as she used with the first barrel. Or at least she hoped there would be some Health Orbs in the other two barrels as well. Once she was prepared, Fusa then gripped her Keyblade with both of her hands on the handle and charged at the other two wooden barrels with a steady speed, repeating the three attacks she used before onto the barrels with surprising success. When both barrels were broken, a few more Health Orbs dropped to the ground around them and they were absorbed when she touched them again.

"Very good," Yen Sid spoke to Fusa as she turned to him. "As you go on your journey, you will gain more attacks and increase your health and strength to use them. To use the Keyblade takes responsibility, but I understand that you will have that responsibility." She looked at her Keyblade and back to Yen Sid as the wrecked barrels disappeared behind her and many more appeared in their place. "However, there will be enemies that will attack for their fallen comrades in multiple numbers. Remember that the Heartless is teeming in multitudes of forces despite a decline in their numbers recently. We will finish today's training with this strategy put to the test to your skills."

Once he said this, Fusa turned to see the multiple barrels waiting for the attacks and was hesitant to charge at them. Yet she knew not to let Yen Sid down if she showed her hesitance to attack them. Keeping a tight grip on the Keyblade handle, she made a slight charge at the first barrel she sees, making her first strike at it, using the same attacks as she used with the first three barrels, a Vertical Slash to a Horizontal Slash and finishing it with a Thrust, breaking the barrel completely and absorbing the fallen Health Orbs. She turned on her heels and did the same with two more barrels, unaware that the barrel she destroyed regenerated, before making the same attacks on more barrels that she locked onto. When those were destroyed, they also regenerated as well for the next strike.

Fusa struck down the last barrels before turning to find the next batch of barrels were waiting for her next move. She could have sworn to actually wreck them, albeit under Master Yen Sid's instructions. Perhaps she could be able to try again, just harder this time. So she took a tighter grip on the handle of the Keyblade and made a 180-degree turn, dragging out the Horizontal Slash to three of the regenerated barrels and absorbing the fallen Health Orbs. When the three barrels regenerated, Fusa kept focus on the other barrels, using the three basic attacks at full speed until there was nothing but wood. She used the attacks on the regenerated barrels and waited to see if anything next to Health Orbs being absorbed would happen. Turns out, however, nothing did happen. Instead, her Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light and Yen Sid walked over to her with a nod.

"Very good," he spoke as he led her away from the wrecked barrels and back to the steps with the three fairies. "Though you rushed in your technique, you've adjusted well to your new duty as Keyblade apprentice."

"Apprentice?" Fusa asked him as they ascended up the stairs to return inside.

"Yes, I am a former Keyblade Master," he answered as Merryweather pulled the door inside, letting herself and the rest inside of the Tower, "Now I have discarded the title and passed down my Keyblade to my former student. When he became Master, he returned Star Seeker to me."

"What's a 'Star Seeker', Master?" she asked him again, her curiosity peaked. After all, she never heard of a peculiar name before.

"It is the name of the Keyblade I passed down time ago, of course," he answered again to her as they arrived in the Entrance Room, "Owners of their Keyblade would discover their names. For example, young one, yours is named 'Gentle Heart' due to your power over Heart, no doubt. Perhaps it is why it has chosen you as its wielder."

Fusa was interested in what she was hearing. _My own Keyblade has a name and I didn't even know it…_ she thought to herself as Yen Sid left her and the three fairies be in the Entrance Room. She snapped her head up and watched him walk up the stairs back to his study without another word. Before she could ask him again, however, she stopped to turn her head and found that the three fairies started to head into another room and Flora gestured to Fusa to join them in there. So she walked over to their direction so she would know more about them.

Unbeknownst to her, however, Yen Sid had stopped before entering into the portal to the first staircase leading to the Moon Chamber, watching what she would do. "Somehow," he mused to himself as he stroke his beard in thought, "There's something about this Newborn Nobody that piques my curiosity… Perhaps he can tell me when he arrives…"

* * *

Inside of the room, where mirror were covered up for unknown purposes yet have inscriptions in front of them, the three fairies were serving biscuits, cakes, and tea to each other and Fusa as they discussed to each other about many topics. Fusa, however, didn't exactly know what to say to them. She never knew that elderly women, let alone fairies, could be so human from a perspective of a non-human. There was something about them that allow her to hear their hearts beat loudly as she quietly drank her tea. Perhaps it was their light.

"Oh, we nearly forgot our guest," the fairy in green, Fauna, spoke as she served more tea politely to the 14-year-old. "I suppose you have questions for us."

Fusa nodded as a response and held the cup in her hands, asking the three fairies in a calm manner, "How did you come here? Did you arrive by train, too?"

Their expressions shifted from smiles abound to frowns as they looked down with guilt and regret in their posture. Fusa became concerned that she could have invoked an unwanted emotion into them and that they would become hostile. An unlikely chance, but they seem friendly enough.

"You see, a very long time ago," Flora began as she used her magic wand to make a biscuit appear from nothing, "We used to live in our own world with the beautiful princess Aurora and her prince. However, the Heartless invaded the world and filled it with Darkness. We were protected by Aurora before she was captured by… by…" Fusa noticed that Flora was struggling to remember who did the deed.

"Well, whoever captured dear Aurora, we were left to fend for ourselves," Merryweather added for her as Fusa listened. "Thankfully, Yen Sid and his student found us and took us in to live here, in hopes that our world would be restored to its proper place. It's been eleven years since then…"

"About a year ago, a young boy used the Keyblade himself to defeat the Heartless, and the worlds that were lost to the Darkness were eventually restored," Fauna added as well, "I do hope that one of those restored worlds would be our own. As for the wielder, he was never heard of again."

"What was his name?" Fusa inquired curiously. There was no mention of a boy before, even by Yen Sid. However, the fairies couldn't seem to answer, since they do not seem to know what his name was. As a result, she decided to herself not to ask anymore questions and sipped her tea without a word.

* * *

Inside of the dim computer room, where DiZ was watching a young boy of 15 with strawberry blond hair and a scene outfit in the Sandlot unconscious, the figure in black appeared to him with a letter in his hands. Now the man in red turned with a hidden puzzled expression and took the letter from the figure's hands. He scanned it with his eyes and made a grin to himself. He found that there were some good news in the letter.

"It seems that the Newborn has survived the ordeal with that meddling redhead," he spoke to the man in black. "According to the letter, it is now in safe hands and wielding the Keyblade like the Hero of Light."

"You said that Newborns weren't entirely dim despite being naïve," the figure in black responded as he crossed his arms out of thought. "So this one escaped the Organization member without fighting him?"

"It seems that it adapted quickly to the situations while it was inside of the virtual town," DiZ explained briefly with a nod. "Yet where Newborns rely on their masters for guidance, this one relied on the implanted memories to cling to. Removing the memories would remove its mental crutch to move on in life but it would have to grow on without it from this point on."

"This mentioned a man named 'Yen Sid'," the man in black pointed out as he reread the letter. "Why would the Newborn Nobody go to him?"

"We will discuss this another time," DiZ responded before he turned back to the computer screens. "For now, make sure Naminé has not escaped to tell this one the truth about who he is."

The man in black, however, had a feeling that it was a little late to do just that.


	7. Chapter 6- Mysterious Tower: Attack

The next day, in the Mysterious Tower, Fusa was inside her temporary quarters asleep in her bed, while in her outfit, by the narrow window. There were no dreams to come to her this time, no thoughts came to her head, not even a memory. Simply emptiness that occupied her mind. Her sleep was fortunately interrupted when a voice woke her up to a slow start.

"Miss Fusa, dear," Fauna's voice piped up outside the door as Fusa opened her eyes and sat up on the bed, "Master Yen Sid requests that you would be served breakfast before you start your training today. We will be waiting in the Wardrobe Room for you."

She turned her head to the door across the way and scratched her head briefly with her right hand, wondering if she really heard Fauna correctly. That, and the concept of breakfast sounded fascinating to her. So she swung her legs to the edge of the bed and stood up, picked up her backpack, pulled out the trinket out of her pocket, and held it high above her head. This caused the door to glow and teleport her out into the Star Chamber, where Fauna was waiting for her. However, the fairy in green had to leave and turned to walk out of the Star Chamber, wanting the young wielder to follow behind. Fusa found this exceptionally odd, but didn't want to question it yet. So she followed behind Fauna and out into the spiral stairs after putting the trinket back into her pocket.

Down the staircase and past the Moon Chamber, Fusa had thoughts of asking Fauna much more questions if there was enough time for. It wouldn't hurt to ask more questions, or at least she hoped it would quench her curiosity.

"So, Miss Fauna," she spoke up as the fairy in green listened well. "Do you have any powers of your own, by chance?"

"Why yes, dearie," Fauna answered with a nod as they descended down the stairs, "My fellow sisters and I have special powers, though they're generally not used for fighting. We only use them to bring joy and happiness. Flora has the power to control plant life, I control the animals, and Merryweather controls the weather. But these powers are not the only ones we have."

"What do you mean?" Fusa inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"We also grant special gifts to children as early as infants," Fauna answered again to her. "My gift is that of song. Flora's gift would be beauty. Though these gifts would not be stronger than most, they are actually quite useful for good."

"What about Merryweather's gift? Does it have a connection to her power?" Fusa asked again before they reached to the portal leading to the Entrance Room.

"Well, her gift to is quite different from ours," the fairy in green answered as they stopped in front of the portal. "Though she cannot erase a problem, she simply makes a solution to it instead. Consider it a silver lining to a dark cloud, dearie. We tend to refer to it as 'hope' to an extent."

_A silver lining to a dark cloud… _Fusa thought to herself curiously. Perhaps her power would be the same as well.

As she thought to herself, however, Fauna passed through the portal and the young wielder followed behind down the spiral steps of the Entrance Room. There, they descended down the stairs and headed over to the Wardrobe Room, where the other two fairies were sitting by the table full of pastries, fruits, and tea. Yen Sid was nowhere to be seen in the room except for the fairies and Fusa only. Fusa herself was surprised that breakfast would be so grand and different than what she thought it would be. However, she gave a delighted smile to the elderly women and joined them at the table to eat.

* * *

During breakfast, the fairies were discussing to each other on different topics. Flora and Merryweather were bickering about which color is best to use, blue or pink, while Fauna was attempting to be the neutral peacekeeper out of the trio. Fusa, on the other hand, was too busy enjoying her breakfast; mainly her twentieth or twenty-first pastry with pieces of apple filled inside, her tenth croissant, some strawberries and blueberries, and plenty of cups of tea. All without gaining a large stomach. It was complete bliss for her, despite using a simple fork and a knife out of courtesy for the fairies, but bliss nonetheless. Not one moment did the fairies stop to speak to her, but it didn't matter. For a moment as she ate carefully yet quickly, she didn't _want_ to be interrupted.

As Fusa was eating her breakfast and the fairies were talking amongst each other, Yen Sid entered into the room behind the young Newborn Nobody's chair. The three fairies stopped talking and Fusa turned her head to see him, for he had his arms crossed in front of his chest in a stern manner. The trio felt caught, though Fusa was unaware of what was going on. One thing was for certain for them, however: he was waiting for them in the Courtyard.

"I suppose you were having breakfast longer than expected," he spoke to them with a stern tone. Fusa winced with shame as the fairies used their magic from their wands to clean the table up and got her to stand on her feet.

"We're very sorry, Master Yen Sid," Merryweather apologized to him for her fellow fairies and the young wielder. "We lost track of the time."

"I accept your apology, Merryweather," he responded to them before giving them a reminder, "Just remember to check outside from the windows. I could also see you from where I was standing." With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke, making Fusa jump back a bit in a startled manner.

"Come along now, dears," Flora then spoke to the other two fairies as they began to fly away with their wings and Fusa watched them with awe, "We mustn't keep Master Yen Sid waiting for us in the courtyard." She stopped and turned to Fusa. "You as well, dear."

The young Keyblade wielder nodded and followed the fairies behind out of the Wardrobe Room and into the courtyard. There, she noticed that there was a contraption in place of barrels from yesterday. She wondered if her training today would involve something different than before. The contraption, she noticed, was connected to a wheel with five straw dummies holding a strange red and black heart-like symbol on their chests hung by the ropes. Nonetheless, Fusa joined up with Yen Sid and the good fairies across the way, where she saw that there was more than one contraption of the same design.

"Look before you, Fusa," Yen Sid spoke to her as she listened to him closely for instructions. "What you see before you are Training Dummies. In the past, students of the Keyblade masters used golden rings to train with. However, after the Heartless were created, there were talks of redesigning the contraptions. So, the golden rings were scrapped and replaced with the Training Dummies. In the previous training, you adjusted to the three basic attacks: Thrust, Vertical Slash, and Horizontal Slash. Now it is time to test these attacks, only this time, you will need to lock onto the moving targets. Each Training Dummy contains Health Orbs and Munny as well as Heart Orbs."

"What's a 'Heart Orb'?" Fusa asked with curiosity, repeating the words "Heart Orb" slowly..

"A 'Heart Orb' is similar to the Health Orbs," he explained to her as he showed her a hologram of a pink-shaped Orb with red filling in it, "Except they boost your powers rather than your health. When your powers run out, Heart Orbs restore them when they are absorbed. In battle, your Heart powers will be used to temporarily control your enemies, giving you great advantage of their strength. However, it would also weaken your powers' strength, so the Heart Orbs are useful to have when you defeat an enemy. So remember to use your powers wisely when you fight."

Fusa nodded as a response to him before summoning her Keyblade in her hand in a flash of light. She held a grip on the handle of the weapon, no longer afraid of holding it in her hand with assurance from Yen Sid's words. She walked forward to the training contraption and positioned herself to attack. With Yen Sid and the good fairies, however, they watched with supervision as the sorcerer himself made a flick of his wrist, creating a light gust of wind to make the wheel turn. Fusa became unaware of what he did, for she only jumped back a bit with surprise and watched the wheel turn horizontally. Mentally, however, watching the wheel turn made her brain scrambled and she shook her head to focus on her training.

She made a quick charge forward at the contraption, coil-jumped up to one of the Training Dummies, tightly gripping onto the handle of the Keyblade with both hands, and executed a Vertical Slash on it before landing on the ground on her feet. Upon impact, the Dummy's Heartless emblem was cut in half as damage, the other half falling to the dirt to the wind as the wheel turned behind her. Fusa turned and watched with her Keyblade ready and waited for the damaged Training Dummy to come around. When it did come around, as shown by the cut symbol on its chest, she followed it and made another jump up at it. This time, she made a quick combo of a Horizontal Slash and Thrust, wrecking the Dummy completely.

When it was wrecked, the rope that hung the Dummy snapped and collapsed to the ground, causing a few Health Orbs, Munny, and a Heart Orb to pop out from the body. Fusa saw this and walked over to the spoils. Where the Orbs were absorbed, she picked the dropped Munny up and placed it in her backpack. She took note that the Heart Orb had a strawberry flavor when it was absorbed into her system and that her heart felt strange. Yen Sid made a flick of his wrist again, to which the wheel stopped turning and Fusa turned to him to see if he had anything to say.

"The Heart Orbs that you collect will increase not only the strength of your power of Heart, but also the chance of greater control," he explained to her for a moment as she listened to him. "Yet they have a slim chance of boosting your powers when the strength increases. Make the best of your Heart powers while you can." Now that he had the explanation out of the way, Yen Sid made another flick of the wrist and the wheel began to turn again.

Fusa turned to the rotating Training Dummies and prepared her Keyblade to try again to see if there were any more of the Heart Orbs inside of the Dummies. With that, she made a quick run at one of them and jumped up, executing another Horizontal Slash and Thrust combo on it, causing the rope that hung it to snap and the Dummy to collapse, spilling spoils in the process. She did the combo to the next two Dummies all while collecting the fallen spoils in the meantime and landing on the ground on her feet, albeit a little unbalanced. Fusa felt a light boost of strength in her muscles, feeling as if she increased her metabolism. So she turned to another Dummy and made a jump at it. This time, however, she made an air combo of a Vertical Slash and a Horizontal Slash, cutting the Dummy in four pieces and causing spoils to spill onto the ground. She found the chance to absorb the fallen Health and Heart Orbs as well as collect the few Munny on the ground. She checked to see if there were any more, and found that there were two left.

As Yen Sid and the Fairies watched Fusa practice on the Training Dummies, the sorcerer kept his arms crossed with thought as Fauna looked at him with concern. She felt that something was bothering him yet didn't know what exactly. He knew that her concern was showing to him, but did not avert his eyes away from the Newborn Nobody once.

"Her power of Heart is a gift wielded for good, but there will be times where it would be used for the wrong reasons," he explained to Fauna as she listened yet her sisters focused on only Fusa's skills. "Her curiosity and innocence will make her a target for those with dark intentions to take advantage of her then dispose of her when they're done. If her power is not harnessed carefully, then it would prove dangerous and present her as a threat."

"But Master Yen Sid," Fauna began to ask him with unsure thoughts. "How can you be sure that the young dear wouldn't work for the Heartless?"

"The King and my former student had arranged with an acquaintance of his that Fusa will be accompanied with a couple of companions to keep her from going into the hands of Darkness," he answered to her. "Even then, only a boost in a developing morality would keep her on the path to light, even if she truly does not exist."

Back with Fusa, she waited for the remaining Training Dummies to swing back around to her direction. When they did, she jumped up between them and executed a combo of Thrust and a Vertical Slash, slightly cutting them both. But it was enough for the ropes to snap off, cause the Dummies to collapse to the ground, and spill Orbs and Munny. Once she got to the ground, Fusa then stretched her back out since it was starting to become sore and examined her surroundings a bit. She noticed that there were no more Training Dummies for now and began to collect the Munny and absorb the Orbs into her system. When she was finished collecting the spoils, her Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light and she turned to Yen Sid to see if there was something for him to say to her next.

"Impressive work, young one," he stated to her with a stern nod. "You seemed to slightly improve on your technique. Now that you know the three basic strikes, we shall move onto your Heart abilities. The next set of Training Dummies will be needed in this section of your training, the section in which you must practice your abilities."

"My Heart abilities?" Fusa murmured to herself curiously.

"You are aware of what you learned about them, are you not?" he inquired to her, but she nodded to him that she understood. "To mend and break, to create and destroy. You have been given knowledge of what your power can prove of. Now it is time for you to test your skills if you can yield to them."

Fusa nodded to him that she understood him. In truth, she was not sure if her heart could give her the proper reaction needed for her abilities. All it would take for her, naturally, would be focus and patience- both which she needs now.

She approached the next wheel of Training Dummies and stopped at one of them, confusion rising within her senses. For some reason, Fusa noticed, that she could feel some sort of a heart within the straw innards. She swore that she could have felt a heartbeat… Then she heard a loud crack and became shocked by what she heard. Was it possible that she heard a heart break? She didn't want to know.

The fractured heartbeat grew faint, one beat at a time, inside of Fusa's head. There was no telling if there was a real heart inside of the Training Dummy. She paid close attention to where it was located before raising her hands onto the heart symbol. A soft collapse caused the heartbeat to increase its sound, until it grew louder to the point of struggle. Her hands began to shake as she struggled to concentrate. As this happened, the three fairies grew concerned that the young Newborn Nobody wouldn't survive, though Yen Sid watched to see what would happen in her case. No doubt that he expected what could happen with a first timer's experience with Heart powers.

As Fusa struggled to keep control of her newfound powers, however, the Training Dummy imploded and was split in twain, its lower half collapsing to the ground. Only a few Health Orbs, two Heart Orbs, and one Munny fell out of the split Dummy. She was wide-eyed with shock and a gapping mouth by what happened. The three fairies that watched gasp with surprise though Yen Sid was unfazed; he merely sighed as if he knew what was to happen.

"Oops…" Fusa squeaked to herself with a hint of worry before reluctantly moving forward to collect the spoils, afraid the destroyed heart would either splatter or clatter to the ground. Her mind only focused on what the shattered heart would look like, thinking that it resembled cracked porcelain, whatever it was.

Upon absorbing the orbs and collecting the Munny, she was approached by the sorcerer, who had a stern expression and arms crossed in front of his beard. She looked down with shame before she could say anything else.

"Do not be ashamed of your inexperience," Yen Sid then advised to her as she looked up at him. "Though you are young, there is still time for you to harness your powers based on the path you choose. But the path you choose will not always be black or white."

"What do you mean, Master?" Fusa asked him with confusion.

"Your morality will lie in grey shades in hearts of many," he explained to her. "Either you choose to use your powers and your Keyblade for good or bad will not matter. What will matter, however, is how those you will meet will react. Some will ally you, others will wish death upon you. Some will not know what you are, others will recognize your kind from their past. It will take time for them to learn more about you or they will simply ignore you. Even then, be weary of your surroundings in your journey."

"Yes, Master," Fusa responded with a nod of her head with a growth of seriousness in her voice.

* * *

Back inside the tower, Fusa was sitting on a ladder step inside the tower's study, which was cluttered with books of old, stars and moons on the ceiling, and ink pots scattered on the tables and shelves. She was examining the journal book out of curiosity, feeling its delicate leather texture bounded by an unbreakable substance.

_Whoever or whatever wrote the journal, _she thought to herself as she tapped her thumb on the cover, _Doesn't want their secrets exposed. But why would it in my chambers?_

As she thought to herself, however, Fusa heard a squawking sound and snapped her head up in surprise. She noticed that there was a purple covered cage in the study that stuck out like a sore thumb. She didn't know if Yen Sid or the three fairies told her about the squawking creature in the covered cage, but she knew it sounded distressed. It was quickly thrashing about inside of the cage violently as Fusa put the leather journal on the nearest shelf, carefully got off of the ladder and slowly approached the covered creature, not wanting to panic it. She was afraid yet curious; afraid that she would be caught by Yen Sid or the three fairies, curious to see what was in the cage.

She reached to the purple drapes and made a grip on it, pulling it to reveal a locked birdcage with a raven in it. It was squawking loudly, as Fusa noticed as she covered her ears, with unusual golden eyes and purple bags under its eyes. She also noticed that it was thrashing around in the cage, trying to escape its prison. However, by its actions, she wasn't sure if her powers could control it.

When it saw her, however, it stopped thrashing around and simply stood, staring at her suspiciously. Or at least with a grin from its beak. She grew from curious to nervous upon seeing the raven's unexpected action shift. Either it was plotting an attack on her or it was showing its gratitude towards her in a strange way. Either way, Fusa felt conflicted to either leave it caged or let it go.

She slowly stepped towards the cage, looking for a lock that was keeping the raven inside from freedom. Upon approaching the cage, the bird did not panic one bit. Instead, it eyed on her very carefully. To Fusa, however, it was unsettling and perhaps disjointing to see a bird to that. She was able to find a handle that kept the cage door and unlatched it, opening the cage door for the raven. However, as she took a few steps back away from the cage, the raven squawked and leapt out, its wings opening and taking flight. She ducked to avoid getting attacked by the bird, though it was not focusing on her.

Instead, it landed on a broken chest and picked up a black robe with an inner purple color with its beak, to which Fusa lifted her head to see the bird. She realized that it was devious and was thinking of a plan to escape. How she could be a fool to fall for that trick she would never know. What mattered now is that she has to put it back into the cage before anything else would happen. She took a chance and made a leap at it, but it took off, and she tumbled onto the wall with a loud thud. It was too late to react, for the raven was gone without a trace.

Fusa struggled to get up due to her legs hanging over her body until she toppled over and her legs hit the books. She winced upon impact, but found out that she could swing her legs so she would sit up. Once she sat up, Fusa cracked her neck so she would no longer feel any discomfort before she rolled her shoulder blades to crack them as well. Oh, the mess she made from trying to catch that bird made her blush with shame.

"How am I going to tell Master Yen Sid about this?" she asked herself quietly with worry as she placed her right hand on her head on confusion.

She would only hope that the pesky raven would not cause any more trouble than it did to her today. She also would have to hope that whatever plans it had with the robe wouldn't be worse than expected in a moment.


End file.
